RWBY Sins of Yesterday
by WrestleCrazyGamer
Summary: Takes place in an AU so I don't conflict with what's happened/will happen post vol.3. New Beacon is built and the RWBY team and JNR are invited to attend again. They're then introduced to Professor Lunescia Brandt, who invites students to partake in the "Voluntary Parenthood Program". The purpose is to produce Enhanced Hunters. How? A new discovery with Dust. *Being Revised*
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 01: Prelude

Since the defeat of Salem, RWBY and JNR had a month of rest before being informed that they've been invited to complete advanced level Hunter training at New Beacon, which had been built during the time they were preparing to battle Salem, developed to make sure that the mistakes of the past weren't repeated. Much was still a mystery, but everyone graciously accepted as they'd be able to see each other again.

Ruby entered the front gates and saw the beautiful campus courtyard, spacious enough to fit at least two full villages with flower gardens and fountains all around. Immediately Ruby could see Yang, now equipped with a robotic metal prosthetic arm, and immediately ran to her.

"Yang!" she cried out joyfully. This immediately grabbed Yang's attention.

"Ruby. Long time no see. Like my new righty?" Yang greeted her.

"Cool, it moves like it's your real arm!" Ruby spoke gazing at the many interconnecting mechanisms of the arm.

"Infused with some heavy-duty Dust so it doesn't cave in under the force of my punches no matter how much power I build up. Weiss had it special made for me." Yang beamed.

"She made you something but not me? That's totally unfair." Ruby whined stamping her foot.

"You aren't missing half an arm." Weiss scoffed as she approached them.

"Weiss! You look mature." Ruby stated as she looked Weiss over in her suit-like dress.

"I was always mature, Ruby. Jaune, Ren, and Nora will be along shortly. I haven't seen Blake though." Weiss explained.

At that very moment Blake approached them with Jaune, Nora, and Ren accompanying her. Ruby's face lit up seeing her friends again.

"Nora! It's been too long!" Ruby shouted.

"Ruby. Good to see you're still energetic. You haven't gotten rusty in the month we've been down right?" Nora questioned.

"Not in the slightest." she retorted.

As Ruby and Nora were catching up, Yang scooted to Ren and elbow jabbed his side. "Ya propose yet?" she prodded.

"P-Propose? We've only been dating for a month." Ren stuttered.

"You've known each other long enough that you've pretty much been dating way longer though right? Come on, I'll even be your wingman." Jaune suggested.

"Jaune, Yang, really, it's too soon." Ren argued.

"Hey, when you change your mind, my offer to be your wingman still stands." Jaune winked.

At that moment a tall masculine woman approached them. Her face was covered in bandages so that only her amber eyes and long light blue hair could be seen. She wore a black and red robe that hid all beneath it with black gloves. The sight of her sent chills down the group's spines. As if seeing their fear, she grinned.

"Greetings, Advanced Students. I am Professor Lunescia Brandt. I look forward to working with you for the duration of your stay." she happily greeted them with a slightly deep voice extending her hand to Ruby, who was too afraid to notice.

"Are my bandages frightening you? My apologies. I have scars I'd rather hide than present. I'll see you all at the assembly later this morning." she spoke before walking off.

"Did anybody else feel like every step she took was stepping on your grave…?" Jaune shakily asked, and the others simply nodded.

So at 9am the group gathered in the auditorium with the rest of the students and faculty. Ozpin, unanimously appointed headmaster when New Beacon was built, took the stage turning on the microphone.

"Welcome, students new and returning, to New Beacon. Ah, pardon me… this is New Beacon, so you're all new students regardless of your classification here. I'm glad to see so many familiar faces around. You'll see that we have improved our security policies to hopefully prevent a second Fall of Beacon. Now, before I give you all the typical boring speech, I have a very special guest here to present a project open to all students. Please welcome, Professor Lunescia Brandt." Ozpin spoke.

Applause echoed through the auditorium as the professor took the stage. As soon as she adjusted the height of the stand it went dead silent in the room. It seemed to widen her grin.

"Greetings, students and faculty. I am proud to stand before you and propose the 'Voluntary Parenthood Program' to you. I shall disperse any confusion now by explaining. What I study is the effect of Dust on living creatures such as plant life and mammal organisms, and attempt to find new uses for Dust through experimentation. My most recent discovery I have deemed Daemonia Dust." she spoke as a black box is wheeled on-stage and then opened to reveal a canister of an odd dark grey Dust. Many of the students immediately grew concerned at the sight of it.

"I expected your reaction. I have thoroughly tested its effect on living things, and can assure you that it is absolutely harmless. I first discovered it whilst mixing and matching different Dust combinations when I dropped the vial onto a flowerbed. I expected it to explode, or at the worst kill the flowers. To my surprise… they began to sprout and grow at an unexpected rate. The flowers were more vibrantly colored and were nearly three times as resilient as the normal variety. The Dust was a sort of fertilizer that enhanced the new flowers. So I took some small insectoid specimens and injected them with the Dust, imitating what happened with the plants absorbing it. The injected specimens showed signs of enhanced behavior and endurance. You could normally crush an ant with your pinky… but these newly enhanced ants could withstand your fist crashing down on them. In the interest of keeping them from breeding, I exterminated them in a fire. Then I moved on to small mammals, beginning with a chipmunk and moving my way up the line… until the final, and ultimate test had to be conducted… human beings. I begged and begged the board of directors to allow me to conduct it, and they allowed me only one attempt. I couldn't risk things going awry with a test subject. So I used myself as the first human to be injected with the Dust. I did the same as I had everything else, and injected into my reproductive system. Less than twenty-four hours later I became pregnant with my son, Nigel." she further explained nodding off-stage to a small 7-year-old boy with flat blue hair wearing sneakers, shorts, and a hoodie who then came on stage and stood on an X that was marked.

"My son is the very first Enhanced Human. Physically he is already on par with a grown man twice his size, able to think on the same level and perform tasks normally impossible for his age group. In fact, he is already capable of using his Aura to defend himself." she praised him as she pulled out a magnum handgun cocking it before kneeling and kissing his forehead. This even made the faculty uneasy.

"Mommy will only fire once, sweetie." she calmly told Nigel, and he nodded nervously.

She then stood and took twenty paces from him, turned around, and took careful aim making many of the students look away or get prepared to rush the stage. Thunder roared through the auditorium making almost everyone leap from their skin, and then gaze in shock and awe seeing the bullet stopped dead at Nigel's glowing forehead. Nigel opened his eyes and the bullet fell dead to the floor as Lunescia rubbed her wrist.

"As you can see, he stopped the bullet with no trouble whatsoever. You may be wonder why I'm using such a high caliber gun as well. That is simply to show just how powerful his Aura is compared to that of the average person. This model is designed to pierce straight through, yet it stopped as if I'd thrown a pebble at him. Not only is his Aura stronger… but he himself is strong." she stated as she placed a stone slab on two blocks by Nigel and once she signals him he effortlessly chops through it with his hand wowing even Ozpin.

"An Enhanced Child may be made one of two ways. A single mother that is injected, or an expecting mother who is then injected allowing the fetus to absorb the Daemonia Dust. The resulting child will not only be enhanced, but the mother will also experience and enhancement of their own. I will have signups on the bulletin boards around campus. Oh, and before I forget, there are side effects to being injected. Nothing lethal or technically dangerous… but know that it will indeed be a trial. I will not turn the floor back over to Headmaster Ozpin." she spoke closing her presentation taking a bow with Nigel as the entire student body applauded. Ozpin walked back on stage and cleared his throat.

"Thank you for that wonderful presentation, professor. If you wish to sign up, please do so between classes." he opened, and of course gave the usual boring first day speech.

After the assembly the RWBY team pondered the program on their way to get their things situated in their new dorm room. Ruby appeared to be the most perplexed of the group.

"I think I wanna sign up." Ruby spoke breaking the silence.

"…and have a baby? On your own?" Weiss responded surprised.

"I don't know, it could be fun. Plus, I've kinda always wondered what it'd be like to be called 'mom'." Ruby spoke fantasizing in her head a tinier version of herself speaking the word "momma".

"Trust me Ruby, you wouldn't be able to handle being a parent." Yang argued crushing her fantasy bubble.

"Yeah, and I don't feel like losing sleep because your baby wakes up in the middle of the night crying for milk." Weiss added to the attack.

"What?! Blake, you're with me on this one right?! Being a mom would totally be loads of fun!" Ruby pleaded trying to escape their argument's wrath.

"Well… being a parent would be an opportunity to give a new generation a different upbringing from the one you received." Blake nervously answered trying not to look Ruby in the eyes.

"So we can totally be mom buddies! Come on Blake, sign up with me! Please?!" Ruby begged trying to give Blake the puppy dog look.

Try as she might, Blake couldn't help looking. Ruby's puppy dog look has that "wounded puppy" aspect to it that makes it that much more devastating to see. Blake was trapped now…

"I… guess being mom buddies… doesn't sound too bad…" Blake sighed, and immediately Ruby grasped her hands.

"No takesies-backsies! We're going right now! Future moms, away!" Ruby exclaimed and off she dragged Blake to the signups.

"She totally disregarded our concerns as her friends and roommates." Weiss groaned pinching the bridge of her eyes as Yang simply grinned shaking her head putting her arms behind her head.

"Well, Ruby is Ruby after all. You didn't expect a month to change her did you?" Yang teased Weiss, who then groaned more grabbing Blake's bag and drags it with her prompting Yang to grab Ruby's things and carry them as well.

At the lab many students were gathered including Ruby and Blake. Professor Lunescia was at the front of the room mixing water with the Daemonia Dust.

"Thank you all for coming. The purpose of mixing water with the Dust like so is merely to make it easier to inject you with. Now, I need a volunteer to go first." she addressed them, and Ruby immediately began jumping up and down giddy to go first, prompting another grin from the professor.

"Yes, the spirited one in the back." she spoke and Ruby was at the front in seconds about to explode with excitement.

"Please, change into the gown behind the curtain so we don't stain your clothes with anything." the professor instructed her, and Ruby changed fast into a white patient gown with a flap over her womb for easy access.

"Now what?" Ruby asked eagerly, and the professor got a twinkle in her eye.

"Please, lay on the table. Don't mind the restraints, those are just to make sure you don't struggle causing the needle to snap or something worse to happen." she instructed, and Ruby did just that causing her wrists and ankles to get locked in place as the professor got a syringe full of Daemonia Dust flicking it to get rid of air bubbles.

"If you all came to see something spectacular, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. The procedure is little more than getting a shot." the professor explained as she injected into Ruby prompting a squeal from her.

"It's cold!" Ruby exclaimed with chattering teeth as the professor removed the needle after injective every last drop.

"It will warm to your body temperature soon enough, Ms. Rose. Soon you will feel quite relaxed. This is a common side effect and should wear off by the following morning." Lunescia explained cleaning the needle and then asked for the next volunteer.

It was late afternoon when Ruby and Blake were able to get back to their dorm room where Weiss and Yang were waiting. The beds were already configured into bunks and their things were neatly put away. The room was nice and spacious as well.

"Welcome back, Mom One, Mom Two." Yang teased as Weiss stood up from her bunk.

"Okay, ground rules. When you have those human boom boxes, you're to make extra sure they aren't crying at ungodly hours of the night. You're also in charge of changing them." Weiss practically scolded as Yang chuckled.

"She spent the entire time you were gone raving about how she won't tolerate waking up at 2am because one of your babies starts crying for milk or a diaper change." Yang told them trying not to burst out in laughter prompting Weiss to fixate her gaze on her.

"Oh? So you're volunteering to deal with waking up at insane hours because of your sisters' baby?" Weiss questioned narrowing her eyes at Yang.

"I mean, heck yeah I'll help if I gotta. I'm gonna be an aunt, so may as well act like one, ya know? Ruby's way too childish, so somebody's gotta be the mature one." Yang replied avoiding eye contact as Ruby and Blake climbed onto their bunks after changing into their pajamas.

"You're just as bad! If anything Blake and I are the mature ones." Weiss scolded her as Ruby turned her head to look over at her.

"Weiss… rub my belly…" Ruby spoke tiredly pulling her shirt up to show her stomach.

"Ruby, I'm not rubbing your stomach." Weiss bluntly refused as Blake passed out.

"Why nooooooot?" Ruby whined as Yang giggled a bit.

"I don't want to. I'm not rubbing your stomach." Weiss argued.

"I'll rub your belly." Yang volunteered.

"Noooooo, it has to be Weiss… her hand is soft…" Ruby spoke appearing very tired.

"What? My hand is totally soft." Yang argued offended by her statement.

"Nooooooo… it's all rough from battle… Weiss uses a rapier… so her hand is nice and soft…" Ruby spoke pretty much dozing off leaving Yang steamed.

"Fine. Leave your belly unrubbed. See if I care." Yang retorted getting into her bunk and facing the other way goes to sleep.

"Well… that was settled… in a way." Weiss talked to herself getting under the covers of her bunk going to sleep as well turning out the lights.

End Chapter 01 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 02: Pains & Motherhood

The following morning RWBY was heading to class, but Yang was ahead of the group and Ruby was continuously apologizing to her.

"Yang I'm sorry. Your hand is smooth as a baby's bottom." Ruby begged her sister for forgiveness.

"Whatever. I'm over it. It was an after effect of that injection." Yang replied seeming to walk a little faster.

"She's so not over it." Blake commented and Weiss nodded as they approached class. At an intersection they saw Nora, Ren, and Jaune approaching. Nora seemed a little down.

"What's up with Nora?" Ruby asked as their groups met up.

"Ren wouldn't participate in the program with me." Nora moped as Jaune tried to hide his laughter.

"Just because it's there doesn't mean we should, Nora. Even if the child is enhanced, we sort of lack the financial wellbeing to care for one. We aren't even married." Ren reasoned failing to cheer up Nora.

"Well, Ruby and I are going to be moms soon. Would you like to be their babysitter?" Blake offered, and Nora's mood changed immediately.

"Really?! Both of you?! Awesome! So I'll be looking after two little guys or girls. Ren! You're gonna have to lend me a hand, I won't be able to keep an eye on both at the same time!" Nora excitedly spouted, which made Ren glad she was happy again, but at the same time worried that she might be a little too enthusiastic.

"I wonder what Pyrrha's kids would look like…" Jaune fantasized, prompting Yang to jab his side.

"Fantasize all you want, big guy, but we've gotta get to class." Yang playfully scolded him.

Just then a bell rang and the group hurried to class, Ruby and Blake being careful of themselves. The classroom was almost the same size as the classrooms of old Beacon. Most of the class were new faces though. The teacher was a man with black hair wearing a suit reading a small novel. He closed it once they entered and looked up at them.

"Welcome students. I'm Mr. Oswell. I'm your Situational Battle Instructor. This class is just that, a class all about battling under different circumstances and in different situations. The purpose of this class is to help you become adaptable to almost every possible situation in battle. I will not be spoon-feeding you the answers to dealing with situations. I'll be thrusting you in real life combat with Grimm in different situations, and your goal will be simple… adapt and defeat the enemy. Teamwork will be key in achieving an A in this class. The only written work in this class will be reflections on how you acted and adapted in the previous battle. You will not have tests in this class, because I'm not teaching you to regurgitate information. I'm teaching you to survive. Am I understood?" he announced walking about the front stage. His speech left silence at first, but then the students applauded and he got a slight smirk as Ozpin entered the room taking a list to him.

"A list of the students who are now pregnant. I believe this will be instrumental is keeping track of who is faking and who is actually pregnant." Ozpin told Oswell.

"Good. I like knowing who to put in what situations." Oswell replied looking over the list, prompting Ruby to raise her hand.

"Yes?" he spoke looking at her from his peripherals.

"Um, aren't you, you know, not going to endanger the babies?" Ruby spoke concerned and nervous.

"Only if the expecting mother signs a waiver that I am not responsible for what may happen to their unborn child. Otherwise you will sit on the sidelines with your teammates until such time as you do not have a new life in your stomach." Oswell replied, prompting a relieved sigh from many of the students.

"Wait, we're participating in teams for every battle?!" Yang asked in shock.

"Indeed. Did you not hear me just say that teamwork will be key to getting an A? According to the list, two of your team members are pregnant. Don't fear for your grade, I'm not that cruel. You'll receive the maximum amount of points minus 5%, just to be fair to those actually putting themselves at risk." Oswell responded making the students talk among themselves. Ruby and Blake looked especially relieved.

"Oh man… I wanted to get into the field, too…" Yang complained. Weiss looked equally annoyed.

"We can't help it if two of us are going to expand our team size to six." Weiss said looking at Ruby and Blake. Ruby gave a nervous smiling wave and Blake nervously avoided eye contact.

After classes Ruby and Blake were taking it easy in their room when someone loudly knocked on the door. Weiss opened it and almost got ran over by Nora, who was carrying a box. Ren and Jaune were still at the doorway.

"Nora… sorry Weiss." Ren apologized helping her up.

"What's in the box?" Yang asked and Nora opened it pulling out colored dresses.

"For the expecting mommies! The left half is for Ruby, the right half is for Blake." Nora exclaimed and Ruby lifted one out of the box. She put it to her and saw that it was obviously too big.

"Uh, Nora…? Aren't these… you know… big?" Ruby asked.

"They're larger than your normal shirt size because of the baby bump you're gonna have." Nora explained moving her hands in an arc over her stomach.

"How thoughtful." Blake stated checkout out the designs.

"These are actually pretty cute dresses, Nora." Weiss stated seeing them.

"Oh, don't thank me. Jaune is the one who picked them." Nora beamed swaying her hips side to side as Jaune immediately began to panic.

"Hey, what happened to I had no part in this?!" Jaune spoke as Yang grinned at him.

"So, you know a bit bout women's fashion huh?" Yang teased making Jaune blush a bit.

"C-Come on, it isn't like that. I just figured it wouldn't be good for the babies if their parents' stomachs were restricted from expanding." Jaune tried to save himself, and it made Yang's grin wider.

"Come on Yang, don't tease him so much." Ren spoke attempting to defend Jaune as Ruby tried on the dresses, which went down slightly past her knees.

"Kinda restrictive." Ruby stated swaying her hips.

"That'll change when we have our bumps." Blake spoke trying on her dresses.

The day went by slowly, but they were having fun. The rest of the week was uneventful other than Ruby going nuts over her bump slowly beginning to form. The following week side effects began to arise though. It seemed no matter how much Ruby ate, nearly ten minutes later she was hungry again. So they headed straight for Professor Brandt's lab to get answers.

"Professor, we wanted to ask you something." Weiss spoke as they approached her.

"Whatever about?" she responded turning around to face them.

"Yeah, Ruby has unnatural feeding habits now. Is that normal?" Yang explained pointing her thumb at Ruby.

"My body says no but my tummy says yes…" Ruby whined holding her stomach, prompting Blake to rub her back.

"How interesting. I didn't expect to find a case of enhanced growth on this campus." the professor mused walking to Ruby looking at her stomach compared to Blake's.

"Enhanced growth?" Weiss replied confused.

"I told you in my presentation how the flowers I spilled Daemonia Dust on grew faster than other plants, yes? Occasionally, roughly 1 in 1,000,000 I've estimated, will experience pregnancy at an accelerated rate of 2%. This shortens the full pregnancy term for Ms. Rose to 4.5 months compared to Ms. Belladonna who will be expected to carry to the full 9 month term." she explained.

"How'd she get 4.5?" Yang whispered to Weiss, who was baffled at her question.

"What's 9 divided by 2, Yang?" Weiss replied.

"Don't act like I'm stupid, okay?" Yang growled and the professor put her hand on her shoulder.

"There is potential danger in accelerated growth, of course. The baby is absorbing far more nutrients from its parent than normal, sending signals to her brain to eat far more than is healthy in order to compensate. Luckily, I invented a way to counteract it at least a little bit." she explained pulling out what looks like a black wrist watch with a needle on the center piece. Ruby backed up at little at the sight of the needle.

"This device will send impulses through your body that will in theory slow down the growth rate from 2% to 1.5%. Thus your brain will receive pulses telling it that you don't need quite as much food but will still require slightly more than the average amount." she explained slapping it on Ruby's wrist making her yelp.

"It itches…" Ruby whined.

"That's because it's actually in your bloodstream." Weiss explained as Ruby circled her finger around the watch part of device.

"Ms. Belladonna, let me know immediately if you experience strange side effects as well." the professor ordered and Blake nodded hiding her wrists.

After that, time went by as the group worked hard studying. Weiss made sure that both Ruby and Blake studied up on what to do and what not to do as an expecting mother. Yang's job was to study the dos and don'ts of parenting and quiz Ruby and Blake over the material. Soon enough, the day finally arrived for Ruby to give birth. Luck was on her side, as Ruby went into labor just as she was passing the advanced infirmary, staffed with licensed doctors and nurses who can handle cold diagnosis to surgery, to go to the bathroom. The staff walked Ruby through it, and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The usual procedures were performed, and they asked Ruby for his name. She responded with a single word, "Luke". Exhausted, Ruby began to drift off as Yang burst into the room.

"Sorry I couldn't… get here sooner, Ruby…" Yang spoke out of breath sitting down by her.

"I had a boy… I named him Luke." Ruby spoke softly smiling at Yang weakly putting up a victory sign prompting a smile from Yang.

"You did good, sis." Yang assured Ruby holding her hand.

"I'm gonna take a little nap…" Ruby spoke slipping into a slumber.

"Sleep tight. You earned it." Yang praised her stroking her hair gently.

Four days passed and Ruby proudly carried baby Luke, dressed in black pajamas, with her into the dorm room. Even Weiss couldn't fight back a smile seeing the little fellow clinging to his mothers' chest.

"He's so cute." Yang praised smiling at him.

"What's his name?" Blake asked letting him grab her finger.

"Luke." Ruby responded.

"It's a nice name. Now we're just waiting on Blake to give birth." Weiss observed.

"I wonder if my child will be as cute…" Blake wondered staring at Luke.

The evening went fast as RWBY couldn't contain their delight at the newest "member" of the team. Then it became nightfall… and it was time for bed. Ruby hadn't gotten a crib yet, so she decided to have Luke sleep in the same bed as her. Weiss even swapped bunks with her so she'd be closer to the floor in the event of an emergency. At around 1am… Weiss's fears came to fruition, and Luke began crying waking up only Yang and Weiss.

"I knew it…" Weiss groaned as Yang kneeled down by the bunk. Ruby was still 100% unconscious.

"Looks like Momma Ruby isn't waking up any time soon. What's wrong little buddy? You can tell Aunt Yang." she asked the crying infant as she lifted him from the bunk. She sniffed him and immediately tears came to her eyes as she held him out in front of her.

"Yep! That's a stinker!" Yang cried as she carried Luke to the desk where Weiss laid out a blanket and Yang grabbed the diaper bag. Of course, the one thing Ruby forgot to buy was diapers.

"Shit… Weiss, can you run out real fast? I'll try to keep him from waking up the entire hall until you get back." Yang panicked and Weiss nodded getting dressed and sprinting out of the room.

Yang quickly cleaned him up and tried to use a rattle to calm Luke down a bit, but with minimal effect. She then attempted all kinds of ways to try and make him calm down; lullabies, story books, even hitting herself seemed to do very little. Then Weiss returned and Yang quickly put him in a new diaper getting him in new pajamas tossing his other one into the laundry basket. All that remained was to calm him down. They tried all kinds of tactics to make him stop crying. Then Ruby, still half asleep, took Luke from them and put one of her breasts in his mouth. The sounds of crying were silenced.

"About time…" Weiss sighed relieved.

"You could have just woke me up… he was hungry… and needed a diaper change." Ruby moaned tiredly.

"So he was both… he's a strange one…" Yang complained as Ruby lay back on her bunk holding the now sleeping Luke.

"Sorry girls. I'll be sure to take care of him next time…" Ruby spoke drifting off herself.

Morning came and Ruby was the last one up. Ruby was very careful about bathing Luke and changing him. Then Ruby put on a shirt with a baby pouch so she's arms free carrying the diaper bag. Yang couldn't help but stare at Luke as he fiddled with the pacifier necklace Ruby was wearing rather than sucking on it. Weiss, who was at the back of the group, was pulled into a closet, but then immediately left again hurrying to catch up with them.

During class Luke began to tug at Ruby's shirt. She ignored it at first until he began to pat her chest.

"Luke, honey, I'm in the middle of class." Ruby whispered to him.

Adamant on being fed, he gazed at her patting her chest a little harder. Ruby couldn't fight it and stealthily made her way out of the classroom and to a bathroom stall to nurse him. This cycle repeated three more times during class hours, both to change him and nurse him. Ruby was exhausted by the end of classes, but she wouldn't allow him to begin crying in the middle of class.

A little time passed and things became a little less strenuous for Ruby to care for Luke. He could even sit up on his own now. Blake had a very rude awakening one morning when her water broke and the group rushed her to the infirmary. Yang held her left hand and Ruby held her right as she gave birth. Through a lot of screaming, Blake finally gave birth to a baby girl. She held her newborn and could only smile as she shed tears.

"She has your ears." Yang joked stroking the newborn's cat ears.

"She has my tail too." Blake replied seeming out of it.

"Luke's gonna have a play mate now. I just know they'll get along." Ruby spoke bending to get a better look at Blake's baby.

"I'll name her… Mero." Blake stated teasing her newborn's nose prompting her to sneeze.

One month after that, Team RWBY was finally able to participate in all battle classes. After classes Ruby and Blake began baby-friendly exercise routines to work off the pregnancy weight. Much time passed as RWBY got back into the swing of fighting Grimm in their classes. Nora got to enjoy babysitting Luke and Mero whenever RWBY was in a class mission. Luke could now walk and was very prone to escaping the playpen Ren built though, and whenever Luke would escape Mero, who could only crawl, would sure enough begin to follow him. No matter how Ren and Jaune would attempt to baby-proof the pen, Luke would find a way to break him and Mero out. The oddest thing is they wouldn't know he escaped until Mero lost track of him or was unable to follow him and begin to cry. Rather than scold him for being an escape artist, Ruby praised Luke on his problem solving skills despite his extremely young age.

A full year passed and Luke learned his first words… and he was quoting Babysitter Nora who wasn't being careful of what she said around the babies… "Bwake his wegs". In a panic Nora and Ren tried to teach him other words before Ruby came to pick him up. Mero's first word was nothing special, "mama", pretty standard. Pretty soon it became difficult for Nora to keep the two in one place even with Ren's help. Wherever Luke went Mero would follow, because she was worried he'd get himself hurt wandering around. She also felt safe around Luke, because he always made sure she was comfortable with where they were going… usually.

Luke excelled at solving problems, whereas Mero was actually very good at sports. Their enhanced bodies made it possible for Luke to solve Pre-algebra level math and Mero to make basketball shots with ease despite her size.

Two years later, it was time for graduation. Luke dressed in black sneakers, knee-length black cargo shorts, and a red hoodie. Mero dressed in white shoes with black socks, white pumpkin shorts, and a short-hem red sleeveless dress. They had to stand in the audience with the other kids though, as much as they wanted to be on stage with Ruby and Blake when they received their Huntress certifications.

After the ceremony the RWBY team were discussing their invitations to take positions as teachers for a "revamped" course.

"It'd bring in a steady income, wouldn't it?" Ruby reasoned.

"It's logical if we're going to keep properly caring for our kids. That and to Luke and Mero, New Beacon is home." Blake concurred as Yang grinned.

"Then it's settled, we'll all be teachers?" Yang asked with her arms behind her head.

"Fine. It could be fun." Weiss replied.

"Now where oh where are our aforementioned children?" Ruby spoke when out of nowhere Luke leapt onto her back nearly making her fall over.

"Mom, where are we gonna go now? You graduated right?" Luke asked feverishly.

"I'm going to teach here at New Beacon now, so we aren't going anywhere. We'll just move to the teacher's dormitory." Ruby replied repositioning him on her shoulders.

"Where Luke goes… Mero follows." Blake spoke turning to Mero lifting her up.

"Mommy… we aren't going away are we?" Mero asked timidly, and Blake simply smiled at her stroking her hair.

"No, we're not going away. Mommy's going to be teaching here as well. So will Miss Long and Miss Schnee." Blake assured her.

Four months passed, and Mero still hadn't grown out of her habit of following Luke wherever he goes while their mothers are busy. Luke told her he was going looking for Scarlet Posies in the Emerald Forest, a known spot for finding such a rare flower commonly. In Mero's eyes, Luke was born without the gift of fear, and believes she has to be his conscience. That being said, Luke often talks her into performing tasks she doesn't want to like climbing trees to get fruit or letting him lower her by her feet to reach something in a grate.

"Luke, this area is dangerous…" Mero cried trying to keep up with the headfast Luke who walked with his arms behind his head.

"It's fine. This area is patrolled regularly. We'll find the posies and get back before you can say 'Grimm'." Luke assured her with a wide beaming smile.

"Luke…" Mero groaned shaking a bit.

"Mero, if we stay in the area marked with blue paint, we aren't at risk. Mom really likes them, I've just gotta get some for mom's birthday." Luke beamed at her.

Mero couldn't fight Luke's smile, and followed him looking around the area. Then at the border of the safe zone, just two trees beyond it, was a patch of six vibrant crimson Scarlet Posies gently moving in the breeze. Luke's smile widened and he ran to them startling Mero.

"Luke! You're outside the safe zone!" Mero shouted.

"It's fine, it'll just take me a minute." Luke argued as he picked the posies being careful not to harm their petals or stems.

When he stood up and walked back to Mero, he found that she was gone. He looked left, he look right, and then up into the nearby trees. It was like she'd disappeared into thin air, and he'd have heard he bail on him.

"Mero? I got them. We can go back now." Luke spoke continuing to look around.

He called a few more times and then back up a little scared, but bumped into something metal behind him. He felt above his head and found a crotch area.

"Mom?" he joked turning around to find what he bumped into was a looming suit of tight-fitting female brown armor with golden trim, a red waist design going down the right leg stopping at the knee, and a red helmet with a gold crown design to it. He could only see black in the slit where the wearer would see out.

"I-I need to go home now. Bye." Luke spoke with a brave front whirling on his heels and began to walk away. A moment after the armor began to walk after him making Luke increase his pace, and the armor followed suit. He turned a corner and quickly shimmied up a tree managing to lose the armor. It began to patrol the area looking for him and Luke stuck to the treetops making his way back to New Beacon. When he got to the edge of the Emerald Forest he leapt down and booked it from there. He was extra sure he didn't harm the posies.

When he entered the courtyard he immediately spotted Mero laying on Blake's lap as she brushed her hair. Luke, furious, ran over to them.

"You bailed on me!" Luke shouted angrily.

"No I didn't, I sent a shadow clone with you." Mero replied and then immediately covered her mouth.

"That's worse!" Luke shouted as Mero clung to Blake's waist.

Then Luke heard clanking that he thought he'd escaped. He turned and there the armor was at the gate huffing and puffing with rage. It summoned flames that then formed Pyrrha's weapon.

"It followed me…" Luke shakily spoke backing up as Blake set Mero down, fury coming to her face.

"Mero. Get Luke out of here." Blake ordered trying not to let any anger slip.

Mero didn't ask taking Luke's hand and ran with him toward the building where Yang was walking.

"What's the rush you two?" Yang asked nonchalantly.

"A-A suit of armor chased Luke from the forest! Mama's fighting it!" Mero explained in a panic. Yang immediately began to sprint for the gates seeing the fight and countered a thrust from the armor landing several punches on it allowing Blake to slash it several times.

"I don't know how you got that weapon… but disrespecting the dead… and our friend… is going to cost you!" Yang growled furiously.

"Leave some for us!" Ruby shouted and she and Weiss joined them.

The four easily outmatched the armor bashing it and slashing it knocking it into the air where Yang threw Ruby up to stab her scythe into its chest slamming it on the ground. The suit rolled from an incoming punch from Yang and stood holding the wound in its chest that was now leaking an odd black liquid. It stabbed the weapon in the ground making an odd red sigil burn into the ground as it fell to its knees, then sank into it vanishing leaving only the weapon and sigil there. Ruby tried to take it from the spot but it refused to budge despite how easy it looks like it would come out.

"Just what was that thing?" Yang asked confused and Blake shrugged her shoulders.

"It is a Phantom. Not alive, but not dead, nor is it undead. It is a soul trapped inside a vessel." Professor Brandt spoke approaching them.

"So a soul is inside it?" Weiss asked confused as the others were.

"A Phantom requires three things; a vessel with which to place a deceased soul into, detailed documentation of the soul in question, and the ability of Necromancy. I fear that Blood Raine is behind this Phantom appearing. They are known for making armors to house the souls of the deceased. They are forced to obey because the spell keeps the souls in a state of agony, making them unable to think straight and go against orders. The souls molds the armor to be the shape of their flesh bodies before their demise. They are also able to call their old weapons to them by sheer force of will. By that weapon, I would say your friend Pyrrha Nikos was victim to their ritual." the professor explained making Ruby kneel examining the sigil.

"What is Blood Raine?" Blake asked.

"Blood Raine is similar to the White Fang, but do not desire equality between humans and Faunus… they desire outright WAR. I shared that same mentality at one point… until I witnessed a mixed family enjoying peace together. They even had healthy children. I saw that Blood Raine was just as wrong as the White Fang. War was not the solution to anything. So I left them, and devoted myself to more productive causes. The way Luke and Mero interact is further proof that humans and Faunus can get along and be equal." Professor Brant explained turning and walking back toward the main building.

Ruby hurried to find Luke. She found him in the dorm room putting the Scarlet Posies in a water filled vase. She walked over and patted his head.

"They're beautiful, Luke. Did you go and find these for me?" Ruby asked.

"Uh-huh. I'd give Mero credit for helping, but she sent a shadow clone, so no credit for her." Luke replied beaming at her. His smile brought one to Ruby's face as well.

"Luke… do mommy a favor, okay?" she spoke hugging him to her.

"Anything." Luke replied hugging her back.

"Don't ever stop smiling the way you do. Even if things get hard or if you're in trouble you find a way to give the brightest smile I've ever seen. When I'm not sure I can keep doing this whole teacher thing, your smile reassures me that things are going to be okay." Ruby asked of him nuzzling his head.

"Okay mom. Whenever you're having trouble, I'll smile. I'll give the biggest smile you've ever seen." he assured her beaming at her.

Ruby smiled and hugged him again. In truth, Ruby was afraid of when Luke and Mero would begin actual training to be Hunters and would need weapons to fight with. She knows that they're enhanced, but they're still barely over four years old. She isn't ready for her little warrior to run wild. She wants to cradle him for just a while longer.

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 03: Rage Awakened

Several years had passed since that day. Today marked Luke's ninth birthday. Ruby could no longer avoid it, and had to make a weapon for Luke. She decided to ask Luke what kind of weapon he'd like.

"What kind? Uh… I call it a Scythesword. I drew it myself." Luke replied handing her a very poorly drawn depiction of a single edged one-handed sword bearing a scythe-like curve in the blade. The only thing easy to make out were the notes telling details of how its gun cylinder will act solely as propulsion rather than a gun transformation.

Ruby took the drawing and set to work finding quality materials to begin making the parts. She wasn't quite ready for him to train, but she refused to make a shoddy piece of equipment. It took her a full four weeks to work out all of the imperfections of its design to make sure that it works fluidly. The weapon won't be able to propel a fully grown adult very well without a stronger firing mechanism, but it'd be more than enough to propel someone Luke's size over long distances with ease. She was ready to give it to him. So Ruby called him to the training room to present him with his Scythesword, colored to match her scythe, thus it was named Brilliant Rose. Luke was overjoyed to begin using it.

Ruby's worry was how he'd interact with the other kids. He and Mero have never seen outside of New Beacon's walls. It will be complete culture shock, and restrictive to Luke since he likes to know where everything in his surroundings is. He could be on the other side of New Beacon and still be able to give directions to the other side that would be accurate. Luke wasn't fond of the entire sitting in a classroom situation either. Luckily New Beacon is much easier to get to from the town Luke and Mero would be taught at.

A week in Luke noticed something that he hadn't paid attention to at New Beacon because it wasn't too obvious, but now he could quite clearly see a difference between him and the other kids. When the day was out and it was time for the kids to go home, their mothers were there… but so was a person they called "father". Luke couldn't help but wonder if he had a dad too.

That evening at dinner Luke decided to get it out there. He won't know unless he asks, right?

"Mom." Luke spoke.

"Yes?" Ruby replied halfway through cutting a chicken breast.

"Do I have a dad?" he asked.

"A dad? Uh… no…. you don't… unless you count the syringe that got me pregnant…" Ruby nervously replied.

"Does Mero have a dad?" Luke asked.

"No, Mero doesn't have a dad either." Ruby replied, and Luke looked puzzled.

"Do you have a dad?" he asked.

"Yes, I have a dad. That's probably confusing, huh? It's a little difficult to explain…" Ruby replied touching her fingers together.

Luke tried to understand the entirety of the project she and Blake were a part of, but it went right over his head. The only part he really understood was that his abilities are advanced compared to the other kids, and she asked him to try not to show off. Unfortunately, this was Luke she was talking to, who didn't understand what showing off was. He agreed without really knowing what he was agreeing to. He often did that, and more often than not later he regretted it.

Mero and Luke enjoyed being at the school, since kids their own age were there. Mero especially liked not having to worry about Luke wandering into dangerous places on his own. In fact, most of the class liked Mero because of her caring nature. There were a few who just couldn't help petting her ears and tail, but they quickly learned not to touch them. Mero is very good with a chain sickle. Luke got away with it once before only because she was taking a sunbathed nap. She attempted to scratch him continuously when she woke up realizing what was making her purr.

One stormy day though, a Grimm managed to burst into town during a festival. It strongly resembled an Ursa, but was far larger and covered in more armor. This variety was dubbed the "Kodiak Grimm". Everyone was in a panic and fleeing. Luke, being the idiot he is, stood and faced the Grimm.

"Hey you!" he called at it, and it looked at him growling ignoring the people trapped in the house to focus.

"How about picking on someone your own size?" Luke taunted it, and it roared charging at him.

Luke moved fast attempting to harm it, but could only cause minimal cut wounds due to its armor. He was also small enough he could evade with great ease. Luke could see its neck is unarmored, but he couldn't see any way to get enough height to slash it in their current area, so he led it out of town using his speed and size to his advantage. He managed to get the Kodiak to follow him to the Emerald Forest, where there were plenty of trees to give him plenty of height.

The fight raged on as Luke bounded tree to tree attempting to land a lucky shot on its neck. Sadly the Kodiak had already caught on to where Luke was aiming and became very aware of where Luke was going and how he would attack next.

Luke ran up a tree for the umpteenth time but this time the Kodiak destroyed the tree making Luke fall, helpless to dodge getting swiped in midair sending him skidding across the ground hitting a tree causing pinecones to fall around him.

He tried to gather his bearings as it began closing in, and then Mero's sickle wrapped around its foot making it fall on its face. It stood angrily as Mero pulled her sickle back.

"That's right! It's me you want!" Mero shouted making it roar and begin charging after her so Luke could recover.

"Oh boy… it's gonna take a lot more than a dominant strategy to take this down…" Luke muttered to himself holding his head, and then he grabbed his weapon rushing in to help take the heat off Mero.

Mero tripped and panicked seeing the Kodiak about to strike when Luke leapt onto its back stabbing between two plates of armor making it roar backup trying to get him off. Luke tried to leap off, but found his weapon was now stuck between the plates.

"Luke!" Mero called to him.

"It's stuck!" Luke replied feverishly trying to get it out.

Luke pulled and pulled as it roared getting frustrated. All of a sudden the blade of his weapon snapped off making him fall with the hilt still in his grip. The Kodiak continued to bash its back against trees trying to get the blade out.

"Now what?" Mero asked helping Luke up.

"Well… my weapon broke… but we're both okay, for the most part. I'm for letting it off with a warning and running away." Luke replied.

"It will follow your scent!" Ren shouted leaping down from the heavens dropkicking the Kodiak in the face knocking it over causing it severe pain due to Luke's blade in its back.

The beast roared getting back up and Nora slammed her hammer into the blade causing it go 3/4ths into its back making it howl falling over. Then Yang flew down from the heavens as well slamming her fist into the blade making it exit through the other side of its body. The beast rolled onto its back showing the gaping hole from the blade exiting it as its last flicker of life went out. The Grimm vanquished, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think that went well." Luke spoke moments before Ruby grabbed his ear.

"Luke Qrow Rose!" Ruby yelled.

"Ow, ow, ow! What'd I do?!" Luke shouted in pain trying to free his ear.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?! I about had a heart attack when I heard you'd taken on the Grimm that invaded on your own! You could have died!" Ruby scolded on the verge of tears.

"Mom, those people were being attacked…" Luke cried still trying to free his ear.

"I don't care! You're only nine! I say don't show off, what do you do? You show off! If I'd lost you…" Ruby trailed off letting go of Luke's ear, and then immediately fell to her knees hugging him close sniffling.

"If I'd lost you, I don't know what I'd have done. Luke, you're enhanced, you do possess an innate talent for fighting Grimm… but you're too young still. Please… don't ever scare me like that again." Ruby begged crying.

"I'm sorry mom…" Luke apologized tearing up.

Luke was taken back to New Beacon, and he refused to return to school or have his weapon fixed. He wanted it to be a reminder of his mistake so he doesn't repeat it. He spent his days studying the Grimm on his own, rather than at school where he'd have been more than welcomed back. Luke did make a rash decision, but he saved a lot of people because of it. All Luke could see was his mistake though, and how unprepared he was to face the real thing. It astounded everyone how much Luke had changed from that one incident. He would be playful if Mero asked him to go outside and play with her, but other than that he was more serious than usual and was almost always in the library now. He wrote up his own quizzes, made notes, sketched the depictions he found in the books to visualize them and find weak points the book may not have thought about.

Ruby couldn't help feeling that she went too far when she scolded him. Sure enough, his birthday was coming up once again. Only this year, Luke wasn't hyperactive and going all over the place excited about the cake and the games they'd play. He was still 100% focused on bettering his knowledge of his future opponents. His new seriousness made him unapproachable to most of the kids. His sense of humor had also begun to diminish, almost to a point where it was rare he could take a joke from someone he didn't know well.

So in secret she took his broken weapon sketched new design after new design. She found the imperfections that caused it to be brittle enough that it broke so easily, and deigned to fix them. She felt partially responsible for the way Luke is now, and had to find a way to make it up to him. She mixed metals, infused the mixture with the most powerful Dust she could afford without sacrificing the essentials, and gave it a powerful enough firing mechanism it could propel even Yang as if she were a ball of paper using a modified cylinder so it didn't become inefficient for battle. With a few days left to Luke's birthday, she completed putting it together. Length-wise it would currently be the same height as Luke not including the hilt. She gave it its paint job, and to her surprise the colors went from vibrant jet black and scarlet to a dark worn red and dull black before her very eyes. It was as if the blade had sensed who Luke is now, and its colors wilted to match him… she attempted repainting several times, even using a white primer first, but the colors still faded to them… and so its name was given… Wilted Rose.

Luke's birthday arrived and Ruby called him to the training room. Luke had just woken up, so he had that childish mindset she needed to present him with the weapon.

"You're ten now, Luke." Ruby spoke to him.

"I know… but I thought nothing goes on until 1:34 when I was actually born…?" he spoke groggily rubbing his eyes.

"Well, this present couldn't wait." Ruby replied presenting him with Wilted Rose, a ribbon delicately placed on the cylinder part. The sight of it knocked the tired right out of him.

"Another weapon?" Luke shakily spoke.

"This one isn't like the Brilliant Rose. You'll have to grow into it. It has a finer blade for cleaner cuts and its propulsion system is about ten times stronger." Ruby explained.

"Mom…" Luke spoke looking down, and she hugged him.

"I shouldn't have been so hard on you. Look at you. You've been a mess since then. You were just doing what you thought was right. My concern for you kept me from congratulating you on making the right choice. Maybe not the smartest, but definitely the right one." Ruby explained rubbing his back.

"Mom… all I wanted to do was prove that I could do it…" Luke spoke.

"I know you can do it. You just need to take it one step at a time. Don't bite off more than you can chew, okay?" Ruby asked ruffling his hair as Yang hurried in.

"Ruby, Weiss is pinned down by enemy forces at Brigandine Fortress!" she shouted.

"What?" Ruby replied in shock.

"I'm to secure the perimeter on our side of it, you're to go in and get her the hell out of there." Yang told her.

"Yang, it's Luke's birthday… can't Blake do it?" Ruby asked.

"She's on another assignment and won't be back for another two days. I'm sorry Ruby…" Yang replied.

"Luke, I'm so sorry…" Ruby sighed turning to him.

"I don't mind a road trip." Luke replied giving his signature beaming smile. Ruby couldn't say no to that smile after its long absence.

At the fortress many Hunters and Huntresses were being treated for horrible injuries. Some were being put in body bags. The sight showed how dire the situation was. Ruby and Luke hurried through the fortress to the roof where Weiss was unleashing icicle rain down on the enemies trying to get into the gate. Something was off about Weiss as she stood there.

"Weiss, let's get out of here." Ruby spoke walking toward her.

"I'm glad you're here, Ruby…" Weiss chuckled turning to her, and then launched an icicle at her making her roll to the side and cut another in half with her scythe.

"Weiss, cut it out! We're all in danger here!" Ruby shouted getting back up.

"Silly Ruby… if my target were you… I'd be putting in much more effort." she grinned aiming her rapier at Luke.

Ruby's eyes widened and she moved fast as Weiss launched hundreds of icicle at Luke. She got to him in time, but her blurred movement immediately cut out as she cringed in pain falling on top of Luke acting as a blanket to stop any further icicles. She looked down at her left leg and saw a large icicle pierced her foreleg. She couldn't even feel her foot let alone move it. Luke managed to get out from under her and lean her against the wall.

"That's going to hurt in the morning…" Ruby cringed attempting to remove the icicle, but immediately stops as soon as she touches it when signals of pain go through her.

"Poor, poor Ruby… don't you know how much of a headache he is to you and everyone else? It'd be better if he vanished… along with every enhanced hunter out there right now…" Weiss spoke, and Luke stood glaring at her.

"You aren't Weiss… I looked at mom's old album… and thought maybe you were putting makeup over it… but now I know for sure by how you're acting compared to stories of how you behave. No scar… you're heartless… you're a fake!" Luke shouted charging her as she felt where Weiss's scar would be, and then growled launching more icicles at him only to see him move extremely fast dodging them using the gun feature to close the distance faster and faster.

Luke clashed his blade on Weiss's almost making her stumble back from his momentum. He showed exceptional skill in countering, parrying, and managing to hit her. She wasn't prepared for him to be this good at sword fighting and kept making mistakes. Weiss fell to her knees after getting head butt in the stomach, and Luke leapt at her ready to take her head when Blake grabbed him from behind yanking him out of the air restraining him.

"Let me go! She's an impostor! Impostor!" Luke cried trying to get free.

"Luke, stop it right now." Blake ordered not loosening her grip.

They all went back to Beacon after the enemy seemed to flee from the fortress. Luke was put in a containment room until they heard Ruby and Weiss's accounts of what happened. In the end, there wasn't enough conclusive proof against Weiss, and any charges of "being an impostor" were dropped. Luke was absolutely livid about it, but in the authority's eyes he was just a child acting out of anger because of an unfortunate accident that befell his mother. The anger Luke had inside of him now boiled over. He couldn't handle the fact that a fake was going to get away with making medical staff amputate half of Ruby's leg. He decided if they couldn't find proof that he would. He played the good behavior card to eventually get released from the room. He retrieved his weapon and that same evening he set out. Storm clouds had gathered that day as he approached the gates.

"Luke! Where do you think you're going?! It's going to rain soon!" Yang shouted rushing to catch up with him.

"I'm going to find evidence, Aunt Yang. She's a faker and I know it." Luke spoke looking over his shoulder.

"Luke, you're a kid. What do you hope to find out there?" Yang asked concerned.

"I'm going to prove that I'm not 'a kid with a bad temper', Aunt Yang. She isn't the real Weiss. Nothing she does matches up with the person you all know her as." Luke responded.

"Luke, you can't be serious?" Yang asked.

"Just try to stop me." Luke spoke before continuing to walk and Yang reached for his shoulder making him turn and knock her arm away.

"It wasn't an invitation." Luke growled.

"Luke don't do this." Yang begged.

"You can't stop me, Aunt Yang. I'm done being treated like I'm someone that needs protection, or that I can't do anything on my own. So I'm going to prove that she's a fake, so she'll pay for her crimes." Luke explained walking again, and she lifted him up prompting him to back flip in her grip causing her to let go as he falls behind her landing on his feet.

As soon as Yang turned Luke swing Wilted Rose at her forcing her to guard and have to fight with Luke. She couldn't let him go away like this, but she didn't want to hurt him either. As the fight became more intense, it began to rain, and Luke's left hand began to glow an ominous red. Yang would have to render him unconscious if she was going to get him to stop. In the middle of her right hook, flames erupted from Luke's left hand forming a black, silver, and dark gold scythesword nearly twice the length of Wilted Rose that hit her arm making the bearings in what kept her arm attached come loose sending her arm across the courtyard as she fell over. Thunder flashed as she looked at Luke walking toward the gate. He opened it and didn't even look back as he left.

"Luke… don't you know that I'm pissed too…? You aren't the only one hurting inside! Luke!" Yang cried out starting to cry.

Elsewhere, Blood Raine was making sure no future Enhanced Hunters could be made, so they brought up Professor Brandt's connection to them. This caused the committee to pull all funding from the project, cover up the files, and after hearing about Luke… decided her was too big a threat to the public to be running loose… and put a bounty on him.

End Chapter 3 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 04: Three Years of Rage

Exactly one week after Luke left, Ozpin was informed of a very special individual living on a mountain in the north. So he prepared winter gear and headed to Mt. Kratos. When he arrived he hid behind a tree seeing White Fang members rushing ahead. He followed and marveled in horror at the sight of a beast that looked like a Grimm, but wasn't. It appeared to be a sort of Werewolf with long silver hair whose body was covered in dark navy blue fur wearing tattered black pants. It was easily overpowering and slaughtering them staining the snow in blood. After the last member had perished it let out a ground-shaking howl before slowly but surely shrinking and turning into a small boy maybe three years older than Luke with extremely long silver hair. He had a black skin stigma that began as his left eye, went down his neck, covered part of his chest, and completely covered his left arm. The boy crawled in the snow shivering, and Ozpin approached him.

"That was quite a power you displayed." Ozpin spoke smiling down at him.

"D-Don't kill me…" the boy cried.

"Hey now. I'm not here to kill you. You have a very special Semblance. One that can be used for evil… or one that can be used for good. I'd like to see it used for people's sakes. I can take you from here, where no one will hate you. Would you like that?" Ozpin asked, and he nodded allowing Ozpin to lift him and begin carrying him.

"Do you have a name?" Ozpin asked.

"Rem… Rem Striker…" he replied.

"Striker… that name sounds familiar." Ozpin thought to himself.

Time passed and Luke became notorious for not leaving anyone that comes after him alive. He became more and more hated as time went by, but Ruby, Blake, and Yang refused to join that group. On numerous occasions Mero attempted fleeing New Beacon when a story told of Luke's mischief, but Blake stopped her every time. His bounty only seemed to go higher and higher. Numerous times New Beacon was asked to send Ruby after him, and they refused every time.

Luke searched high and low, having no luck with evidence… until he heard a peculiar rumor. Blood Raine has been impersonating elected officials to gain influence and make events go down the tracks they desire. He snuck his way around finding out which ones show differences to who they really are. Luke made it his job to hunt them down and make them tell him how they cloak themselves. Every time he'd have to abandon the cause and leave the agent to their fate now that they were revealed.

A full year went by and Luke had become quite the dual-swordsman. He even invented a powerful spinning attack that relies on centripetal force to grow more lethal the further he is from the intended target. It took him a while to get used to how dizzy he'd become so he could control the direction and alter it should the enemy move. As he grew he became increasingly resourceful since he was surviving on any game he could find and the money he made selling any Grimm armor he could salvage from those that attacked him, to the few vendors who didn't care about his bounty so they'd pay him for the armor. Luke only bought grind stones to keep his blades razor sharp and whatever food wouldn't spoil before it was time to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner without freezing them. He even learned to modify the weapons on his own. Wilted Rose was now capable of temporarily imbuing the blade with an elemental property for improved performance against the Grimm. The mysterious blade he'd manifested the day he left now folded its blade down for maximum firepower from its cannon-like design. He has to use both hands to hold it when firing though, it has a hell of a kick.

Yet another year passed and Luke hit a major lead on information that could help expose the fake Weiss. Blood Raine has been kidnapping people from a village, or at least people say that it's Blood Raine. Luke explored the woodlands and found a base hidden in the side of a rock formation. The guards weren't Blood Raine, but they sure weren't White Fang either. Luke hid cleverly and listened for the passcode to get in. Once inside he found that there were pods inside extracting Dust from the inside of people and manifesting them into gemstones then used to give life to armors similar to the Phantoms, but they didn't conform to the shape of the soul inside the gem. These were mere imitations but the process alone made him sick to his stomach. He continued to investigate the facility until he saw Cinder, the sole survivor of the Battle of Salem, on an elevator platform overseeing the operation. He decided to keep hidden instead of making himself known.

Luke used the vents to get into the locked control room and quickly dispatched the men inside. He accessed the console and looked for anything that remotely resembled a self-destruct system. Just as he found it, mostly by banging on the keys hoping it'd obey, Cinder grabbed his shoulder and threw him from the console.

"A child managed to get in?" Cinder spoke aiming an arrow at him, and her eyes widened when she saw Luke's eyes. Rage came to her and she let loose the arrow only to miss making a pipe begin leaking.

Luke shoved a fire Dust gem into the pipe with a small detonator, and then he hoofed it evading arrows. He had to take the long way around, but he managed to escape and activate the gem causing massive explosions from inside the facility. There was no way that she died in the explosions, so Luke made damn sure he was gone in the next two minutes. Left behind on the ground was his scarf, hand-knit by Ruby so many years ago, as Cinder walked unharmed from the flaming building and knelt down picking up the scarf.

"He's the son of the Summer Maiden… he's bound to cause trouble later… but what possible reason would he have for being here?" Cinder questioned standing up looking over the tattered scarf. In the back of the right end she found "For my little Luke – Ruby" stitched in gold yarn.

"So Luke is his name… Luke Rose… he's brave for a kid that young. Stupid, but brave… I wonder what he's doing so far from home…" Cinder smiled.

The winter months began to arrive, the hardest months for Luke since he's essentially a hermit. This winter became far worse than the previous two he went through. Only this time, he heard a red hot rumor that "Weiss Schnee" would be presenting at an expo being held in Sky High City next year. There are a lot of places to hide in a city, he could make an attack and be gone in minutes. He'd have to get through winter first though.

On one particular day, it was a blizzard out, but he had to force his way through to the next town. During his battle with nature, the ground trembled now and again. It makes Luke very concerned until the trembling got so bad it knocked him on his face. All at once the trembling stopped and Luke looked around to see two black pillars behind up. He begin to look up seeing those pillars were really colossal humanoid legs covered in black fur that attached to a torso with elongated arms, and staring down at him was a humanoid Grimm face wearing a full mask that beamed down red light from its eye sockets. Needless to say, Luke was no prepared to fight this kind of Grimm. Luke scrambled to his feet and began to sprint as fast as he could through the blizzard as the ground trembled again as the Grimm chased him in a sort of curious manner.

Luke looked back at it and tried to go faster, but it continued to gain on him. Luke slipped into a small forest making the giant move trees trying to find him. Luke snuck slowly and silently through the trees until he slipped falling down a narrow passageway into a cave system twisting his right ankle on the way down. He pushed himself to his knees and looked around the room seeing darkness. He used Wilted Rose's new function to ignite the blade on fire to give him some light seeing some of the walls were made of ice. Luke moved the snow and found a large stick to hold himself up with so he could hobble along the caves looking for a way out. Occasionally reigniting the blade, he kept moving and eventually came to what looked like an exit, until it turned into another pitfall to a lower area covered in snow cushioning his fall a bit. A growl made him sit upright immediately and turn around to find a Grizzly Grimm there.

He forced himself to up and hobbled as fast as he could for the entrance going outside as it kept cutting him off. Luke dropped the stick drawing his other weapon stabbing its scythe curve into the ground, leaned back, and fired the cannon to launch his spinning attack using the scythe curves of the blades for traction to move lightning fast going under the Grizzly, out of the cave, and to a tree where the spin gave out making him hit it rendering him unconscious. The Grizzly growled as it walked from its cave toward him, and an arrow stabbed into its throat setting the beast ablaze howling in pain until it fell cooked medium rare. Dressed in weather-appropriate clothes, Cinder walked from the fog of the blizzard and kneeled by Luke moving his bangs.

"Luck just isn't on your side, is it, Luke?" she spoke before lifting him and carrying him through the blizzard.

Luke awoke to find himself tucked into a bed in a cabin with a cloth on his forehead as well as a bandage on his cheek. He looked over to find Cinder tending the fireplace. He felt a splint on his leg preventing movement, and could see a water kettle being hung over the fire. He'd heard hundreds of tales about Cinder, but she'd saved his life in a very unfortunate series of events. She stood and walked toward him removing the cloth feeling his forehead.

"Your fever isn't quite broken, but at least you aren't going to catch your death of cold now. What possessed you to continue traveling without winter clothes?" Cinder asked changing the cloth.

"I can't afford good winter clothes." Luke responded remaining still.

"Well. Until winter is over you'll have to stay here." Cinder spoke checking his splinted leg.

"Why?" Luke asked a little concerned.

"You can't walk with that ankle, for starts. Plus you aren't prepared for winter travel. It's better you stay here." Cinder replied.

"I did it last year…" Luke argued adamantly.

"That was before I found you. I bet you caught one nasty cold that year too." she shot back.

"I got better…" Luke mumbled looking away.

"So, what made you abandon home? You're pretty young to be a runaway." Cinder asked.

"Weiss is being impersonated… nobody would believe me, so I decided I'd find proof… or the real Weiss…" Luke replied and Cinder began to laugh.

"Anyone can tell that's not the real Weiss. It's a matter of having proof to support it. Cloak magic doesn't work if they know who you are. The best way to expose her is to find out who Blood Raine has posing as her, and spread the word of who she is. The magic will fade away and the real person will be revealed. Of course, I highly doubt they'd let that information slip so easily." Cinder explained.

"What can I do…?" Luke asked a little broken-spirited.

"Injure her badly enough that she can't mentally maintain the cloaked state forcing her true form to be revealed." Cinder answered opening a drawer.

"What's in there?" he asked nervously.

"Something you forgot the last time we met." she answered and took his scarf from the drawer.

Luke forced himself to sit up as she walked over with it. She'd stitched up the tattered and torn portions of it, and even used the right shade of red to do it. Luke was glad to have it back.

"Luke. You are a skilled young boy. Don't throw your life away trying to tough out the cold of winter." Cinder spoke hugging him.

So Luke agreed to stay in the cabin until winter passed. In that time Luke questioned Cinder about the stories his mother had told him. She answered each one, confirming some and debunking the exaggerations of others. It's been a very long time since Luke socialized like this. He had also concluded something for himself regarding the things Cinder has done. Just because someone has done terrible things, doesn't mean they can't be a good person. She was going out of her way to keep him hidden, and even cooked for him. He made sure he didn't waste a single morsel, even if he wasn't too fond of something.

One morning he woke up and saw Cinder looking over his second weapon. She had a sort of sad expression as she felt it.

"Luke. Do you know what the name of this weapon is?" Cinder asked lifting it to see how heavy it is.

"No. It just showed up one day." Luke replied yawning.

"This weapon's name is Burnt Desire… and it once belonged to a hunter who died because it corrupted his judgment and thought process so much that he died a fool's death." Cinder explained.

"So… it's been doing the same to me?" Luke asked.

"Yes. It looks like its true power has been sealed though, so it's only slightly affecting you. This emblem here locks away its Dust channeling abilities." Cinder pointed out showing Luke the mark that resembled three blades intersecting on the handle where the cylinder is.

"So it's dangerous to use it?" Luke asked.

"Only if you rely too heavily on its true powers like he did." Cinder spoke ruffling his hair.

Luke became quite close to Cinder as the winter months passed. Nothing lasts forever though, and at last spring came. Luke's ankle was healed nicely.

"Before you go, Luke, spring can be just as cold sometimes. So I made you these." Cinder spoke handing him a box.

He opened it and inside he found an outfit similar to his current one, but the shoes were swapped with boots, the shorts were now pants, the shirt was still black and short-sleeved but now had a red skull on the chest, and the hoodie was swapped with an overcoat bearing a hood. There were also gloves inside that fit his hands perfectly. She gave him a minute to change into them, and couldn't fight a smile seeing him wearing them.

"They're laced with a special Dust combination so they'll adjust to the weather. If it's cold, they'll keep you warm, if it's warm, they'll keep you cool." Cinder explained.

"Thanks." Luke spoke looking himself over. She then put a hand on his shoulder.

"Keep your flame bright, Luke. You have a bright light in you, but that light makes a shadow. Always remember to accept your light and your darkness as part of you. I made the mistake of forsaking the light… you will regret it down the line." Cinder spoke.

"I don't know what that means, but I'll do it." Luke replied with a smile, and off he went waving to Cinder as he moved with a backpack of provisions she'd prepared for him containing food along with medical supplies.

Luke moved with a new resolve to expose Weiss's impostor. Taking Cinder's words to heart, he decided he'd attack the fake Weiss at the expo to see if he can't make the cloak turn off, and if that fails he'll go looking for Blood Raine bases to find anything detailing the impersonators and who they're impersonating. He didn't have to do everything to hard way, he just had to think. Spending winter with Cinder opened his eyes to the different paths to solving problems. From that winter, he became much cleverer in dealing with authorities and selling his Grimm armor pieces. He soon found himself able to get more money for each piece simply by giving detailed information on the rarity or power of the Grimm it belonged to. Occasionally he'd lie a little about the variety of Grimm it was, such as changing the subspecies it really came from. A lot became easier for him too as his body slowly changed from the ten-year-old he left New Beacon as to that of a young teenager. His hair started to get a little long in the back as well making him put it in a small ponytail. He even had to get a hairclip for his bangs, but mostly because he didn't trust himself enough to attempt using Wilted Rose to cut his hair and the barbers were likely to report him to the authorities while cutting his hair.

Before Luke knew it, he was thirteen and the expo was right around the corner. He bided his time in Sky High City, waiting for it to come around. He memorized the layout of the sewers and slums in that time. Luke even made connections to poor markets to forget they saw him if he went that route after doing the deed. At last the time had come, but an unexpected event happened. Weiss cancelled at the last minute to guard a castle from an incoming Grimm attack. Luke took it as her knowing he was coming and waiting for him. He snuck his way into the castle and there waiting in the audience hall was a teenage boy with long unkempt red hair wearing black shoes, black cargo pants, a red muscle shirt, black gloves, and a choker wielding a great hammer staring at the doors ahead wielding a large folded claymore.

"Luke Rose… the legendary Hunter that has a huge bounty on his head…" the stranger spoke.

"Another stalker?" Luke grumbled.

"Whoa-ho-ho… rude much? Weiss is on the roof. Think you can take her?" the stranger asked.

"It's an impostor." Luke growled.

"Can you take her though?" he asked again turning around to see Luke already airborne ready to swing giving him little time to guard the attack knocking him over twisting his ankle.

"Ow! Hey, time out! I wasn't looking for a fight!" the stranger cried out.

"Don't get in my way." Luke spoke before going to the roof where Weiss was waiting with many Grimm corpses nearby.

"You've grown up, Luke… more than I'd like to let continue." Weiss spoke.

"You know exactly why I'm here." Luke growled and then charged her engaging in battle. Luke proved to be much faster than she remembered as she could hardly keep up with him being forced to back off on most of her charges and lunges. He easily evaded her ice attacks and landed several slashes on her.

In the middle of the fight the entire castle shook violently. Both tried hard to maintain their balance as the shaking continued. On the left side of the castle an all too familiar black hand grabbed on, and then the head of the Colossal Grimm reared its head. It had climbed up the cliff face Sky High City rested on! The weight of it caused the towers to collapse as most of the castle started coming down. The stranger hurried onto the roof and pulled Luke away and to the subway tunnels as the authorities attempted to deal with the Colossal Grimm.

"I could have had her!" Luke shouted.

"You would have died. Good thing I was there to get you out of there." the stranger laughed.

"Why the hell are you so bent on helping me?" Luke asked.

"You and I have similar goals, Luke. You could say my boss has a special interest in exposing that faker for who she really is. I'll be straight, we wanna team up." he replied.

"How? Every law enforcement out there wants my head." Luke shot back.

"You could say my boss and her associates know how to clear someone's name of all crimes… and remove pesky bounties." he chuckled shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh yeah? How?" Luke asked.

"Well… they can't very well charge you for crimes that didn't happen, right? All it takes is erasing the Meta data of files so they can't be rebooted, destroying material stuff, and paying off the leaks. All we need is your solemn word that you will work with us on this. You can even see your dear mommy again." he offered.

"I'll go with it for now. First, your name, second, how we're exposing her." Luke replied.

"The name's Aizen. It'll be like the saying, the best way to an impostor's throat… is under the nose." Aizen spoke.

"You can't be serious…?" Luke asked, and in two days they were at New Beacon's gates.

"You're serious…" Luke groaned slumping slightly.

"What better way to keep the eye on the prize, right? We're right under her nose, and the best part is she can't openly attack us because if she does, she proves she's hiding something. So, ready to meet our cohort?" Aizen asked.

"Greeeeeaaaaat… I can't wait…" Luke groaned.

"Try to curb that enthusiasm, you might intimidate people." Aizen commented, and then they went inside the building.

New Beacon hadn't changed a bit since Luke left, other than the fact the halls weren't as wide as they used to be. He remembered having to get help from Ruby or standing on Mero's back to see out the windows. Three years was a long time to be gone, and it made him nostalgic of the days he and Mero would run around the halls waiting for classes to end.

"Luke Rose!" Yang's voice howled down the hall spooking both of them. Yang then stormed down the hall to them wearing a suit-like uniform with her hair in a ponytail.

"Aunt Yang…" Luke choked out.

"Let me get a look at you!" she shouted standing him up looking him over.

"It's been three years…" Luke spoke shyly.

"It has." Yang spoke before head butting him.

"Ow!" Luke cried out.

"That's for leaving." Yang spoke before hugging him, "This is for coming back."

"Aw, that's sweet." Aizen commented.

"Ruby's in Room 312. She's gonna want to see ya. Go, go, I'll write you an excuse note for classes." Yang spoke pushing Luke along, and off down the hall he ran.

Luke didn't remember it taking so little time to get hall to hall. He really was bigger than he was when he left. He arrived at 312, took a deep breath, and then opened the door going inside. Sitting at the desk with obvious grey hairs was Ruby grading papers in silence. Luke took another deep breath and walked down the steps to her and she looked up at him for a second, then looked back down at the papers. An awkward five minutes passed as she finished grading the stack of papers. She then stood up and walks from behind the desk revealing her prosthetic lower leg.

"Just this once… tell me my head isn't playing tricks on me and my little boy is standing before me…" Ruby spoke beginning to well up, and reached out to Luke's cheek feeling him. She began to cry making Luke smile, and then she slapped him before hugging him tightly.

"M-Mom…" Luke cried a bit.

"You're you! You're home! You… you came back… you're not an illusion this time… I'm not dreaming either… this would be the cruelest joke ever if it were a dream… my little boy's come back to me…" Ruby cried rocking back and forth not letting go of him.

"I missed you mom. A lot's changed in three years." Luke spoke hugging her back.

"I'll say. Your hair definitely needs to be cut." Ruby spoke taking the hairclip from his bangs.

"I didn't trust myself enough to do it myself." Luke smiled.

"These clothes, where did you get them? They're really well made." Ruby asked.

"Uh… a friend of mine made them for me." Luke replied smiling sheepishly. He couldn't very well tell her that the notorious villain she fought years ago made them for him let alone that he spent an entire winter with her.

"Well. You're going to be possibly the third youngest student ever. Mero is starting this year too." Ruby spoke.

"Then how am I the third youngest?" Luke asked.

"Well… Weiss apparently had a daughter whose twelve now. I didn't even see her get pregnant. Unless she had her during the break… no, it takes nine months to have a baby." Ruby reasoned.

"Ozpin enrolled all three of us?" Luke asked again.

"Yeah. I'm glad you're back. How did you get cleared of all charges though?" Ruby replied.

"I'm working with someone very interested in exposing the fake. We're just going to do it legally this time." Luke explained.

"Luke. We always believed you… but the lack of evidence is the only reason we couldn't do anything. Believe me, we were just as pissed that we couldn't expose her. I guess you took more action than we did though, but those illegal acts were uncalled for and you know it." Ruby spoke.

"Mom?" Luke asked surprised.

"Get to your dorm room and meet your teammates. We can talk more later. I want to hear your side of all those stories about you." Ruby spoke hugging him again, and Luke nodded leaving the room to find someone waiting for him. It was a girl his age with long silver hair wearing a blue and silver dress and coat with white boots wielding a gladius bearing pistol functionality.

"Luke Qrow Rose… son of Ruby Rose… murderer of 300 people…" she spoke.

"Uh-huh. Got a problem with it?" Luke retorted.

"You've attempted on my mother's life one too many times… so it ends today!" she shouted thrusting at him and he simply stepped to the side tripping her with his foot.

"Word of advice… never open an attack with a lunge. Not even a Grimm would be stupid enough to get hit by a move like that." Luke spoke.

"S-Shut up!" she shouted standing swinging at him wildly, and he easily dodged them all. He then in a single flick of his wrist bringing out Wilted Rose knocked her rapier flying getting stuck in a chandelier.

"Another word of advice, never lose your cool. You make mistakes that will be fatal in battle." Luke chastised her, and she lunged at him and he simply stepped to the side tripping her again.

"Third word… know when to give up. Nice star-spangled underwear." Luke commented before walking away putting his weapon away. The girl simply sat up blushing and glaring after him as her weapon fell from the chandelier. No one had ever had the balls to embarrass her like that before.

That evening Luke found his way to his dorm room. Like any other, it had four beds. He could see only one of the bunks, the top left bunk, was taken. He tossed his backpack on the bottom right. He heard the door open and turned to find a heavily breathing silver-haired girl there.

"You again?!" she cried out.

"Looks like we're teammates. Hope you learn from the advice I gave you earlier." Luke bluntly stated and she became even more furious.

"You… you… you're so arrogant! You think you're better than me?!" she shouted in her rage.

"Arrogant? I'm giving you advice so you don't end up like those Hunters that immediately get in the field and end up dying because they're sloppy in their execution of tactics. I met a few of them, and if you ask me they're the arrogant ones. I've actually fought Grimm before too. So trust me, I know what I'm doing." Luke retorted.

"Excuse me…" a male voice called behind the girl, and she turned to see Rem, now older with his hair grown out wearing dark brown boots, black jeans with belts making an X on the back tucked into his boots, a long-sleeved black coat bearing a full-arm gauntlet over his left arm and a half-arm gauntlet on his left, a grey shirt visible beneath on his chest, and a red scarf hiding his nose and mouth.

"Oh… so we're on the same team, Rem." she spoke seeming to calm down getting out of his way. He then walked to the girl's side of the bunks and puts his bag on the bottom bunk.

"Rem, huh? I don't recognize him, so he must have come here after I left." Luke spoke sizing up Rem.

"Did you introduce yourself, Snow?" Rem asked getting onto the bunk.

"W-Well… not yet…" she replied.

"This is Snow Schnee, daughter of Weiss… I'm Remiel Striker, but just Rem is fine." Rem told Luke just before passing out on the bunk.

"I guess I don't need introduction." Luke spoke rubbing the back of his head.

"Whatever. Just because I'm on a team with you doesn't mean I have to like it." Snow commented.

"Try to keep it down. Rem's sleeping." Luke teased and she became steamed even though she covered her mouth to avoid screaming at him.

End Chapter 04


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 05: A Terrifying Power

The morning began with Tower Defense, a class that teaches human versus human combat. Jaune was their instructor, and was actually considered the most lenient teacher at New Beacon. How it worked was one team controlled the tower. The other would attempt to take the tower. All guns were to replace rounds with paint pellets, and all blades were to have a flexible rubber edge put on them. Burnt Desire didn't take well to the rubber edge and melted it so Luke ended up having to go one-handed in the class with Wilted Rose. Luke's team would attempt to capture the tower while another would defend it.

"We need a plan of attack." Snow spoke.

"Got one. Cover me, Rem." Luke spoke before charging toward the tower as Rem aims a custom caliber cannon-like red, black, and gold gun opening fire on the ranged members of the enemy team following close behind Luke.

"Charging isn't a plan!" Snow shouted after them.

Luke spun Wilted Rose in front of him so any rounds they managed to get off would he blocked. Rem was amazingly fast at reloading his weapon despite the size of the drum. Two members of the enemy rushed out and Luke easily slid under them drawing their attention leaving them wide open to Rem's gunfire.

"Careful of the narrow halls inside." Rem warned, and Luke nodded kicking in the door.

They made their way up through the tower and made their way to the bridge connecting to the miniature fortress with their flag on it. Across the way a girl student with a bow let loose a large number of arrows and Rem shot them down as Luke charged. She let loose more arrows at Luke and he unleashed his spin attack zooming across the ground knocking the arrows away and forced her to leap to the side as he went by. She aimed at Luke when her arms got shot by Rem as he approached. He then blasted her chest as he went by her following Luke into the fortress and to the roof where the flag was. Standing across the way by an unconscious girl student was Weiss wearing a furious expression.

"You think you're so smart, enrolling here… well, all that did was make it that much easier to kill you." Weiss growled.

"Instructor Schnee?" Rem asked surprised.

"Can it, Rem. She's a fake." Luke spoke tearing the rubber off Wilted Rose and pulling out Burnt Desire to dual-wield again.

"In that case…" Rem spoke reloading his gun's drum with real bullets.

The battle began with Luke spinning both blades generating a heat shield against the incoming icicles Weiss launched at them. Luke slowly advanced toward her as Rem returned fire. Weiss growled and launched a giant icicle at them that Luke leapt to the side of, stabbed the scythe end of Burnt Desire into, and spun redirecting it back at Weiss making her jump to the side as it went by. As soon as she got up she did backward cartwheels evading gunfire as Rem charged. She turned the floor to ice making Rem slip as Luke slide across the ice engaging in an up-close sword battle. Burnt Desire lit on fire as he spin and knocked Weiss flying slamming into the wall falling on her face.

"Did we get her?" Rem asked.

"Not likely." Luke replied as they walked toward her.

All of a sudden she leapt up and unleashed a storm of icicles at them knocking them both back. She laughed as the two tried to stand.

"You underestimated me yet again, boy… and now I will complete my objective because of it." Weiss cackled walking toward them.

"Rem… we've gotta… move…" Luke groaned pulling an icicle from his arm.

"Luke… do you trust me?" Rem asked loading a black bullet into a secret chamber of his gun.

"Trust you? You're my teammate… of course I trust you." Luke replied, and Rem aimed his gun at his forehead.

"Oh? Taking the coward's way out? Go ahead then. Saves me the trouble of dirtying my hands." Weiss laughed.

"Trust me… it won't be your hands that get dirty." Rem glared before firing blasting his forehead dead on. Rem then began to growl as a black energy left his body and encased him in an opaque sphere. Half human half animal growling could be heard from inside the sphere. Then… it cracked a little… and then some more… until at last is burst apart revealing Rem had transformed into a 8-foot tall muscle-bound anthropomorphic wolf-like Grimm beast similar to a Werewolf with long unkempt silver hair and elongated arms with long clawed fingers wearing shredded blue jeans and his scarf loosely around his neck, and then he let out a roar loud enough to shake the entire area. Weiss backed up in horror of Rem's transformed state.

"What the hell?!" Weiss shouted, and attempted to run only for him to be right behind her and slug her jaw knocking her sliding across the ground.

Weiss attempted continuously to flee, only to be cut off or dragged back to be mauled by Rem's razor sharp claws and continuously be beaten senseless. Rem was merciless, roaring and growling the entire time. Luke couldn't believe what he was seeing. The faker was completely out of her element against him. In fact, Luke doesn't know anyone that's had to fight someone who can transform themselves. He continued to slam Weiss around relentlessly. She had wounds everywhere now.

"Mom! Rem, stop it! Stop it right now!" Snow screamed from the doorway of the roof, and Rem uppercut Weiss sending her soaring through the air like a kite as her form devolved to a slightly curvier woman with long orange hair that landed at Snow's feet.

Rem was again encased in a sphere, and when it shattered he had returned to normal completely devoid of injury. He walked to Luke and helped him stand.

"So… still think she's your mom?" Luke asked smugly.

"T-This… this can't be happening…" Snow spoke falling to her knee shaking as she stared at the badly wounded fake.

With this revelation, a full-scale investigation went on. Blake was personally requested to interrogate the fake Weiss. Luke and Rem were treated for their injuries, although most of Rem's were healed by his transformation. No amount of therapy would be able to help Snow get over the fact the woman she believed to be her mother was a fake. She was tested and she was indeed Weiss's daughter, but that still left who the fake was. Luke was able to spill that she was Blood Raine, but she was still hard to get information from. She denied Blood Raine having Weiss in custody though. Ruby and Yang hurried to see Luke and Rem in the infirmary.

"You actually did it, Luke." Yang spoke.

"I told you I'd expose her. I just had help from Rem." Luke smiled.

"Not many get to see Rem's Semblance at work. I'd recognize that howl anywhere, it was Lunar Wolf wasn't it?" Ruby asked and Rem blushed a bit.

"It's one of my higher end transformations." Rem replied.

"You have more than one?!" Luke asked excitedly.

"I have nine in total. The general rule is the one I become is determined on my wellbeing upon transformation. It doesn't apply only to one of them." Rem explained.

"Rem is one of the few freshman to have access to their Semblance. He used his ultimate form on a bully once… and we got to see just how powerful Rem really is when he isn't holding back." Yang revealed.

"He leveled half the school… and we had to help clean it up." Ruby groaned bending over.

"Wow, Rem. You're hardcore." Luke teased.

"He had it coming." Rem coldly stated.

Blake then entered the room looking very satisfied. She had a certain air of tranquility too.

"Well, all we've been able to get out of her is that Blood Raine indeed replaced our Weiss with her, she's alive, and that her goal was to put an end to Professor Brandt's Enhanced Hunter Program as well as destroy all products of it. Explains why so many of the children were getting deathly sick. Good thing they underestimated how resilient they were." Blake spoke.

"Did she come clean on Weiss's whereabouts?" Ruby asked.

"She keeps denying Blood Raine having her. She said they were assaulted in transit by an unknown party." Blake replied.

"Well, who hates Blood Raine more than we do?" Yang asked.

"White Fang." Luke bluntly stated.

"How do you know that?" Blake asked squinting her eyes at him.

"I ran into the White Fang a few times in the three years I was in the real world. Never even say the words in their presence… 100% trigger warning. I'm lucky I got out of there alive." Luke replied, and Blake sighed.

"You're definitely Ruby's son… if you don't find trouble, trouble finds you…" Blake spoke shaking her head.

"That's not… totally inaccurate…" Ruby spoke swaying her hips looking at the ceiling.

"So then we can probably assume that White Fang has Weiss then." Yang stated.

"Where else could she be if Blood Raine doesn't have her?" Blake added.

A few weeks passed and Luke's injuries healed up nicely. On their day off Luke, Snow, and Rem decided to look around campus, since Luke hadn't gotten the chance to look around and see what's new after returning. They came to the gates, and sigil where Pyrrha's spear was embedded still remained. It began to glow, and Phantom Pyrrha rose from it and drew her spear readying for battle.

"Not again…" Snow stated.

"What do we do?" Rem asked.

"I ran from it last time. This time… we fight!" Luke ordered drawing his blades, and then charged the armor engaging it as Rem took careful shots so he didn't hit Luke.

"Do you have to encourage his reckless plans?" Snow spoke, and then Rem looked up, then charged in throwing kicks around appearing to have great force behind them.

"Unbelievable!" Snow shouted seeing the two fight the armor, and then she sighed drawing her gladius rushing in to help keep the armor on its toes.

They managed to make the phantom back up and take some damage. Luke then dodged a thrust countering with a swing that stabbed into its side again making black liquid spill from it. It then leaned in to Luke's ear.

"I cannot… die… until my strings are severed… the forgotten forest… is the key…" the phantom spoke before backing up, stabbing the spear into the sigil again, and sinking down into it vanishing. At that same moment Jaune ran up to them.

"You guys! I heard… that Pyrrha's Phantom materialized again." Jaune spoke out of breath.

"We took care of it. No worried. She said something weird though… she can't die until her strings are severed… and what the heck is the forgotten forest?" Luke explained.

"Forgotten forest? Oh, that's the nickname of the Charred Forest." Jaune spoke smiling.

"You know of it?" Rem asked.

"Of course. All kinds of exotic Grimm can be found there. It's mostly known for the fact that the bark of its trees are jet black with silver leaves." Jaune spoke nodding.

"We couldn't go to such a place alone… would you mind being our escort, Jaune?" Luke asked.

"I'd love to. I'll have to file it as a field trip so the office staff don't leap down my throat first though." Jaune replied.

"Luke, why do you refer to our teachers by name?" Snow asked.

"I've known 'em since I was born. Hearing how friendly they are kind of made me get in the habit of memorizing and calling them by their first names." Luke replied.

"Well, you enjoy the Charred Forest… I'm not skipping school." Snow spoke walking toward the school building.

End Chapter 05 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 06: The Dead Live

The Charred Forest is exactly as Jaune described. The bark was pitch black, and the leaves were silver. Thousands of trees spanned as far as the eye could see. The trees have a seasonal sap retrieval ceremony since their sap is 15% sweeter than other trees, so people just can't help opening their wallets to get some once it's being sold. Some even use the sap to make candy for the kids that sells like a wildfire burns a forest. In the deeper parts of the forest they came upon a small mansion that's definitely seen better days. Ivy was crawling up the red and brown walls, the pillars in the front yard were ruined by the course of time, and some of the windows were broken. The front gate was padlocked.

"I meant to take a look in this place earlier, but it could be someone's private home, ya know?" Jaune spoke, and Luke cut the lock off.

"Well it's the most conspicuous place. Let's go inside." Luke smiled, and Rem followed him in.

"Luke really does play by his own rules." Jaune smiled rubbing the back of his head, and then he followed.

The inside of the mansion was an even bigger mess than the outside. The chandelier had fallen from the top of the room, tables and chairs were busted apart, and the railing of the stairs and second floor was coming apart. The house should have been condemned a long time ago. They then began to search for anything that might stick out. Luke took the third floor, Jaune had the second, and Rem handled the ground floor. The only thing of interest Luke found on the third floor was a painting of three people, two women and a man. They appeared to be Hunters who went to Old Beacon at some point based on their outfits. Luke immediately noticed that the man in the photo wielded Burnt Desire… but how did it make its way to him? Rem then called up to Luke and Jaune, and they went back downstairs to meet him in the library. He then pointed out the scratch marks at the base of a table, and pushed it revealing a rail underneath that clicked into place when the table was moved far enough making a staircase leading to a door reveal itself.

"Good going, Rem." Jaune praised.

"Wonder what skeleton is in this place's closet. Let's find out." Luke spoke walking down the stairs to the door, and Rem and Jaune followed suit.

Once inside they found a computer room that has security monitors watching every room in the mansion. The seat was warm, so someone was here very recently, five minutes ago recently. Luke found the terminal was password locked.

"I don't know what I was expecting." Luke commented disappointed.

"Let's continue through here." Jaune suggested pointing at the other door.

Once they went inside Aizen was there. He had a grin on his face as he turned to face them.

"You found it, Luke. Not the most glorious HQ, I know, but no law enforcement's going to look here. The boss is waiting for you up ahead. You two… have to wait here." Aizen spoke.

"What? Need to know stuff?" Jaune asked.

"More like… the boss has very sensitive stuff behind that door. It'd be bad if the wrong people knew about it." Aizen replied.

"Who is your boss?" Rem asked.

"She's more obvious than you'd think." Aizen replied shrugging his shoulders, and Luke walked past time.

"I'll be back, guys." Luke spoke before entering the door.

Beyond it was a long white hallway with pods that appear to be holding Phantoms in a sort of stasis on both sides of the walls. He walked down it and saw the various shapes and sizes of them as well as the weapons they wielded. At the end of the hall was another door. He reluctantly opened it to reveal a white room with a singular large pod in the center. Luke took a deep breath and walked up to it to find the viewing glass was frosted over. He used his sleeve to wipe some off and peered inside to find a teenage girl's body with very long red hair inside.

"Who's that…?" Luke asked to himself.

"Her name, in life, was Pyrrha Nikos. Your mother and her friends knew her, until her demise at the hands of Cinder Fall several years ago." Professor Brandt's voice rang out startling Luke into turning around.

"I take it you're the boss?" Luke asked as she approached and wiped more frost off the tank.

"Indeed. I'm glad you found this place, Luke. You may be able to give Pyrrha back her life. It is a very rare occurrence for both body and soul to exist on the same plane in separate places. If we were to reunite them… she would be restored." Professor Brandt revealed.

"Wait, I heard she turned to ashes." Luke asked.

"Indeed. Which is why I had to grow a new body once her Phantom had surfaced all those years ago. For sixteen long years she's been incubating here… waiting for her soul to be returned to her. I believe you will be the one to bring her back to life." the professor replied.

"How do I do that? She's kinda, you know, dead?" Luke asked skeptically.

"Unite the body and the Phantom containing her soul. The tricky part is bringing it here. I developed a device that will incapacitate the Phantom rather than injure it to where it must recover." the professor explained handing him a small black device.

"What do I do with this?" Luke asked examining it in his palm.

"Place it on the Phantom. Anywhere will do, but the torso is the most effective area going by previous ones I've captured by the same method." she replied.

"I'll be back soon then." Luke told her and began to walk back to the door.

"Luke. You carry Burnt Desire." the professor stated making him stop.

"What about it?" Luke asked.

"Don't let it cloud your mind. Just because its true power is sealed, doesn't mean that it can't still burn you." she warned, and Luke resumed leaving.

"Speak to the boss?" Aizen asked.

"Yeah. We're bringing Pyrrha's Phantom here." Luke replied.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Jaune asked.

"I've got a trick up my sleeve." Luke replied with a smile, and they returned to New Beacon. They went through several plan ideas on the way before deciding on Rem and Jaune restraining it so he could place the device. Pyrrha's Phantom was exactly where it was when they took it out earlier.

They approached it and the Phantom began to rise from the sigil. Before it could even draw the weapon Luke chucked the device at it nailing its chest making it step back. It reached for the device slowly and then it was electrocuted causing it to fall on its face.

"What happened to the plan?!" Jaune asked.

"I was scared I'd miss… so I threw while it was still gathering its bearings." Luke spoke frazzled.

"We got it. Let's take it to the mansion." Rem suggested, and Jaune lifted the Phantom over his shoulder while Luke fetched the spear. Evidently when the Phantom is out the weapon can be used freely.

Back at the mansion, Jaune and Rem were allowed through with Luke because of the Phantom. The professor had them place the Phantom on the autopsy table placed in a specific location in front of the tank. She then unbuckled certain things on the armor to make it open as if it were a cast of the soul to reveal the black liquid inside.

"Professor Brandt… how long have you been hiding out here?" Jaune asked.

"A long time, Jaune. It was worth the wait though. You're about the witness the resurrection of an old friend of yours." she replied, and activated the drain sequence on the tank causing it to open up and allow an exact copy of Pyrrha's body to fall landing perfectly into the armor. Professor Brandt then closed the armor fixing the latches she unbuckled.

"Won't she drown in the liquid?" Luke asked pointing.

"Just watch." Professor Brandt commanded, and then the armor began to convulse violently until Pyrrha pushed herself to her knees gasping for air scratching at the neck of the armor until she busted the latched and was able to throw the helmet off coughing roughly as her red hair hid her face.

"It… it's her…" Jaune spoke starting to well up.

Pyrrha recovered from the fit breathing heavily, and then looked around her surroundings confused. Jaune walked toward her and when she could see straight she hugged him.

"Jaune! I… I don't know what's going on… you're so much older…" Pyrrha spoke feeling Jaune's face.

"Your body and soul have reunited. Welcome back to the world of the living, Pyrrha." Professor Brandt congratulated.

"It's been… twenty-three years, Pyrrha…" Jaune fighting back tears.

"I died… how am I alive?" Pyrrha asked.

"The short explanation is someone tried to enslave your soul… and I denied them that by remaking your body over the past 16 years and then reuniting it with your soul thus severing their control." Professor Brandt explained.

"Jaune… who are these people?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, a lot has happened. This is Remiel, Rem for short, and he's a student at New Beacon. Then there's Luke, and stay with me on this, he's Ruby's son." Jaune explained.

"So who did Ruby marry?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well… no one. Luke technically doesn't have a father. He was born through Professor Brandt's Enhanced Hunter Program, which Ruby willingly signed up for of course." Jaune replied nervously.

"So his full name would be Luke Rose." Pyrrha spoke looking at him.

"Not counting my middle name, yeah." Luke confirmed.

"You look a lot like your mother." Pyrrha smiled, and Luke smiled rubbing the back of his head blushing a bit. Jaune then helped her off the table and Luke gave her spear back.

"Well done, Luke. Any Phantom we can free from the enemy's grip is a victory for us. I look forward to your cooperation in the future." the professor spoke retrieving the device from Pyrrha's chest.

"What about the armor?" Luke asked.

"It is Pyrrha's to decide what to do with it. I'd recommend keeping it, and when combined with your aura it can be nigh indestructible. You saw how durable it was in your battles with it." Professor Brandt replied, and Pyrrha looked it over.

"After giving it a new paint job it'll be stylish at least. You can't knock effectiveness in battle either." Pyrrha joked.

They then went back to New Beacon to show everyone that Pyrrha was now alive and well. Blake and Ren couldn't believe it, Yang and Nora were fighting back tears, and Ruby flat out tackled her with a hug. A moment after everyone followed suit hugging Pyrrha. Pyrrha was amazed at how different they all looked compared to when she last saw them. Pyrrha couldn't help crying either.

A party was thrown to welcome Pyrrha back. She thought it was a little much, but understood how much they missed her. She had Ruby and Blake catch her up on everything that had happened since her death. She was amazed to find that Blake had also chosen to be a mother. Mero wasn't present, but she was indeed attending New Beacon despite her age. Pyrrha was also shocked to learn Luke is only thirteen and Snow is twelve. They offered to get Pyrrha officially certified, but she declined in favor of completing an education herself. That and she was worried about Luke and Snow. Could children almost half the average age really be just as good as fully grown adults? So they brought it up to Ozpin, and he thought it was a splendid idea to place Pyrrha as the fourth member of Luke's teams, officially making them Team PRLS.

The evening went from fun to hell for Luke and Rem. Snow meant it when she was attending class. She made sure to get the homework for every class for every day they missed as well as the notes. Snow had the devil on her face as she looked at them.

"You two aren't going to sleep until you've at least put a dent in those stacks, got it?" Snow ordered.

"Can I die instead?" Luke asked, and she got in his face.

"No." she glared, and he moped starting to work.

The two worked for hours until they inevitably passed out. Snow just shook her head when someone knocked on the door. She answered it to find Pyrrha, sporting New Beacon's uniform with the armor in a suitcase, standing there.

"Greetings. I hope this isn't too late. I've been assigned to your team." Pyrrha greeted her warmly.

"Welcome. As long as I'm not the only girl on this team…" Snow commented letting her in.

"Going by the layout, I'll be bunking with Luke." Pyrrha spoke examining the room.

"Careful. He's a perv." Snow spoke.

"I doubt that." Pyrrha spoke climbing into the bunk. The night went by slowly, and another day would soon come.

End Chapter 06 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 07: Team PRLS

It was 5th Period, Team Bonding, taught by Blake. In this class, teams are graded as a whole rather than individuals on the same time. Her way of teaching Team Bonding was different from others in that she had them bond through combat with Grimm she went and captured herself. Team XBLK were fighting a scorpion Grimm and eventually managed to take it down despite taking heavy injuries.

"Team XBLK, C-, your teamwork was sloppy and you virtually had no communication between your members." Blake announced as they got out of the arena and the Grimm faded away.

"We had better not get below a B." Snow growled looking directly at Luke.

"Ah, I know we'll do fine. It's all about communication while maintaining focus on what you're doing." Luke smiled.

"Team PRLS, you're next. Just a reminder, you're being graded on your teamwork not whether you can slay the enemy or not." Blake announced, and they entered the arena making a timer begin at one minute and start counting down.

"Pyrrha, that armor looks pretty sleek. It's probably super resistant too. Where'd you get it?" Snow asked.

"Well, I had some old friends test it's durability. No arrow, enchanted or otherwise, is getting through this even if they break my aura. I got it… as a gift from a friend." she responded and Snow got a confused look.

"Timer's almost out." Luke stated getting ready.

"Get ready." Rem ordered loading his gun.

The buzzer then rang as the timer hit 0, and the gate opened. From the dark, a Grizzly Grimm stalked out into the light. The gates closed behind it as it sniffed around adjusting its eyes to the light.

"We should attack while it's dazed." Pyrrha suggested readying her spear.

"Bad idea. It could be faking." Luke replied.

"That armor could be a problem." Rem stated taking aim.

"So then we find a weak point in the armor and-" Snow began when Luke began to run at it.

"Charging it." Luke announced and he began leaping around evading attacks.

"Luke, we're being graded on teamwork!" Snow roared after him.

"Then don't stand there like bumps on a log and help." Luke remarked dodging attacks and Rem looked at Pyrrha, both shrugged, and then rushed in to help.

"We need a plan you morons!" Snow snapped, and Rem began firing at the Grizzly as Pyrrha struck at its legs trying to find a weak point.

"You said to find a weak point! What do you think we're doing?!" Luke shouted making it to the shoulder slashing around seemingly randomly. He then narrowly evaded its arm by vaulting its head to the other shoulder.

Snow watched them fighting it, not making it easy for it to harm them. She took out her gladius, and began to make an ice blue circle in the air that began to materialize a large icicle. Aiming at its chest, she launched the icicle slamming the Grizzly into the wall making Luke lose his footing almost falling off. The Grizzly growled as the icicle hit the floor.

"Are you crazy?! I could have been hurt by that!" Luke scolded furiously, and the Grizzly then swatted him off his shoulder landing halfway across the arena.

"At least I'm taking the safe route!" Snow snapped back stomping her foot.

"Safe?! You endangered a teammate recklessly!" Rem glared while reloading.

Luke stood up dazed and then recovered his bearings seeing evenly spaced lines on its arm going straight to its head. A grin came to his face as he stood up readying his blades.

"Pyrrha! Make a ramp out of its arm!" Luke ordered beginning his spin attack making her look at him, see him spinning right at her, and she nodded getting the Grizzly's attention to thrust its arm at her. She dodged in the nick of time to avoid Luke spinning past her going up the arm and then through the Grizzly's head splitting it in two. Luke's spin stopped as he began to descend, and Rem caught him. The Grizzly's head was a fountain of black mist as it fell to the arena floor.

"Talk about a splitting headache…" Rem joked as Pyrrha walked to them, and Rem set Luke down to hi-five Pyrrha.

"Team PRLS, B-, you had good teamwork but you need to include all members of the team to be fully effective in battle. Luke, I'm designating you leader. You heard your ally's advice and immediately set to try it, and you also took your ally's positions into consideration before moving. It also took putting trust in a new teammate to know how to perform the action you asked when you used your spin attack." Blake announced, and Snow was absolutely livid.

"HE's leader?!" Snow exclaimed furiously.

"I don't have a problem with it." Rem spoke.

"Me either. He kept a level head and strategized even though it seemed like we were playing a guessing game." Pyrrha concurred, and Snow's jaw dropped.

"That and he didn't endanger us needlessly." Rem remarked, making Snow become even angrier storming off.

The entire day Snow seemed to refuse to calm down. She wouldn't even look at her teammates. Whenever a group activity would come up she'd claim to need to use the restroom and wouldn't come back until it was over. Her rage was boundless it seemed. She couldn't accept that Luke, someone she hates with all her being, is leader of their team. She believed herself to be the superior strategist. In Strategy & War, she aimed to prove it. They were asked to play chess with each student in the class. It came down to her and Luke in the end. It began, and Luke showed an expression she wasn't expecting. He was analyzing the board without moving his eyes bearing a serious expression. She couldn't tell what he was about to do like she could everyone else. The game went on and it seemed that Luke was losing… until the 15th turn.

"Check." Luke spoke, and Snow become confused looking at the board. Her eyes widened when she spotted what he'd done. He scattered her pieces through strategically baiting her pieces… so that his queen would have a B Line for her king. Worse… he'd taken out her rooks, so she couldn't castle her way to safety. Her king was in a kill zone. If she moved her king left, her bishop would take it. If she moved her king right, his knight would take it. He merely gave her the illusion that she was winning.

"Not going to move?" Luke asked.

"I… I concede…" Snow choked out sinking down in her chair a bit ashamed that she let it happen. She didn't even realize what he was doing because she was so focused on cornering his king. Everyone clapped and both were praised on their skill, even though Snow felt that it was just pity.

After classes, Luke, Snow, and Pyrrha hit the food court. Snow was notably absent though they left class together.

"Snow was pretty peeved at the decision." Rem spoke after taking a sip of his drink.

"Well, if she's anything like Weiss was, she doesn't like it when things don't go her way." Pyrrha explained.

"I'm pretty sure she was about to cry after Strategy & War. I just continue to make her seem inferior. If you ask me, she's beginning to come to terms with herself that just because your parent is a bigshot… that doesn't mean that her skill is inherent. If you want to make a name for yourself and be who you are, you need to work for it and mean it." Luke spoke before chowing down on a pizza slice.

"Well. You also proved that who she thought was her mother was an impostor. There's no way she can just accept it and move on without any grieving." Rem concurred.

"You must be very insightful, Luke." Pyrrha complemented.

"Nah. I just compared how Weiss behaves in mom's stories to how she behaved then. I didn't want to say something and then wind up wrong. It was when she attacked us directly that I knew for sure she was a fake." Luke replied.

The following day in class Snow wasn't there despite being in the room that morning. Snow didn't show up for the majority of their classes.

"Is she still mad or something?" Rem questioned.

"She'll get over it. I strike fast, hard, and pray to God I don't miss. That's how I've been since running away. I'm not just going to immediately conform, you know?" Luke replied. Aizen then entered the room with a grin on his face.

"Yo, Luke. I just got a red hot lead on where Weiss could be at." Aizen greeted.

"Seriously?" Luke asked.

"Problem is, Blood Raine has the same lead. So it's kinda a race against the clock. You see, New Beacon is convinced she's being held at West Tundra Base… but the boss guessed that part of the lead is a rouse to fool people. She believes that instead Weiss is being held at Northern Snow Base." Aizen explained.

"That means the team New Beacon sends will be going the wrong way." Pyrrha pieced together.

"So the 'boss' wants us to go after Weiss." Luke sighed.

"Who helps you is your business. The boss just wants you at the tip of that team." Aizen winked walking off.

After classes they made their way to the dorm room to change out of their uniforms. Snow entered afterward and when she tried to leave Luke grabbed her wrist.

"Look. Hate me all you want, but we're going to rescue your mom. You can be a big kid and come with us, or you can continue to sulk around because someone was better than you. It's your call." Luke spoke, and then let go of her wrist.

"Only because my mom is involved." Snow growled.

PRLS united, they snuck off campus to head north. The journey took them across the countryside. The further north they went, they colder it became. Snow and Rem had to change clothes, but Pyrrha's armor and Luke's clothes were perfect for any weather due to enchantment. Soon it began to snow, and the snow turned into a blizzard as they came to a forest. It was when they came to a particular hole in the ground that Luke stopped. He'd been here before, one winter ago, when he ran from that colossal Grimm. They continued forward, and soon they came to a mountain with a part of the wall sliced apart to reveal a metal door that has also been cut open. Just inside the doorway were two Faunus corpses. One was decapitated, another had been sliced diagonally.

"Who could have done this…?" Pyrrha asked covering her mouth in shock.

"I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count." Luke spoke entering the facility. The others followed and after getting into the main facility they could hear an alarm going off, but only corpses could be found.

They came to doors requiring keycards, forcing them to search the corpses for them. It seemed no matter where they went in the base, blood and corpses were accompanied by alarms unanswered by the guards who no longer drew breath. The stains were recent as well. Eventually they made it to the basement levels of the facility. The minute they entered the dungeon they saw a rabbit Fauna female with long white hair cowering at the corner of a room as a tall masculine man with shoulder-length silver hair wearing black boots, white jeans bearing six red belts, a long-sleeved black shirt, a sleeveless black overcoat bearing Blood Raine's emblem on the upper back, and black gloves wielding a long black metal katana dripping with blood walks toward her.

"F-Father?!" both Pyrrha and Rem cried in shock, and then looked at each other. The man simply ran through the shoulder of the White Fang member pinning her to the wall as she screamed in pain before turning to face them showing a blood splatter on his cheek.

"Remiel… and Pyrrha? You should be a servant in our cause… that can only mean one thing. So that crazed doctor finally managed to do it. I'd return you to the grave… but in memory of your mother, I'll refrain." he grinned.

"You bastard!" Pyrrha yelled charging him, and he high kicked her jaw knocking her back into Rem's arms as she wiped blood from her lip and Rem held her from charging a second time.

"Hate me if you like, Pyrrha. You're a failure who failed to inherit my flames, hardly worth recognizing as my spawn." he laughed, and Rem tossed Pyrrha to Luke to charge him. He evaded all of Rem's attacks, and then palm struck his stomach knocking him into the wall causing his scarf to flutter to the floor revealing the stigma he had has turned to black markings.

"There they are… the proof of my legacy. Of course… I didn't have to worry about his mother stopping me from imprinting the flames upon him. I didn't make the same mistake I did with Pyrrha's mother." he grinned, and Rem got to his feet furious.

"I was told she died in labor… but it was YOU wasn't it?!" Rem barked.

"It helps when you have members hidden in organizations worldwide. It was a piece of cake killing her off once I learned she had no intention of aiding in passing the Flames of Grimm." he replied with a grin.

"Rem's last name is Striker… that must make you Sirius Striker." Snow stated.

"Oh my, someone who knows my name. It's rare that someone like that makes it away alive these days. Yes, I'm the father of both my greatest success and my greatest failure. Never thought I'd see both in one room, really." Sirius laughed.

"I'll kill you…" Pyrrha growled standing up.

"We're here for Weiss Schnee. Nothing more. Let that Faunus and Weiss go, and we'll get out of your way." Luke negotiated.

"Oh? You won't indulge my children in death against an enemy they've no hope of defeating?" he asked laughing.

"We've got bigger fish to fry. You're Blood Raine, right? You need someone to tell of the massacre that happened here right? So let her go." Luke ordered nervously.

"You aren't totally incorrect, boy." he replied putting a finger on his chin thoughtfully.

"You can't be serious?!" Pyrrha asked angrily.

"Pyrrha. We came here to save Weiss. Save your grudge for another day." Luke ordered putting a hand on her shoulder, and she got a conflicted expression before standing down and standing aside.

Sirius retrieved his blade, and grinned walking past them. Rem put his scarf back on and there was a silence among them as Luke approached the Faunus.

"Where is Weiss?" he asked.

"Third level… f-fifth cell on the right…" the member shakily replied.

They made their way up the stairs and to the cell. Inside with a collar chaining her to the wall was Weiss. She had many scars on her now and was dressed in a short-hem white prisoner gown. Her eyes had a glazed look, and she was sitting against the wall on her knees almost lifelessly. She definitely hadn't been getting the VIP treatment during her stay here. Luke had the White Fang member give her the keys, and then he returned to unlock the cell door. The sound of the door made Weiss's eyes flicker to life with panic trying to get away, but the collar chain didn't allow it.

"S-Stay away! I've been good! Don't whip me! Don't whip me!" she cried out.

"Weiss, it's okay, we're getting you out of here." Pyrrha tried calming her as she grabbed her midsection while Luke used a flame bullet in Wilted Rose to make the blade red hot and cut through the chain like butter.

"Mom…?" Snow asked softly touching her head as she trembled in Pyrrha's grip still weakly trying to wriggle free.

"She's delirious. We likely won't get anything coherent out of her for quite a while. Let's just get these two back to New Beacon." Rem suggested.

Luke talked the White Fang member into coming with them to New Beacon. The journey back was a tad more difficult because now and again Weiss would have an episode where they'd have to restrain her until she calmed down. The White Fang did terrible things to her, including making her have Snow according to the member with them. A lot of Weiss's scars came from uncalled for beatings and the like. Luke thought it odd that if the White Fang hated the Schnee's so much, why didn't they just kill her? Why keep her alive to be tortured for so long?

Once they returned to New Beacon, RWBY and JRN were there to greet them. Tears came to their eyes as they saw Weiss being carried like a deer on Pyrrha's shoulders. Pyrrha only carried her that way because it was much harder for Weiss to attempt getting free that way. She was immediately taken to the advanced infirmary for immediate treatment. Her wounds were cake to take care of, but as for her mental state, it'd be a while before she would be well enough to tell them what happened to her. As she slept Ruby was stroking Weiss's bangs to the side. Yang and Blake were also by Weiss's bedside.

"I'm going to stay with mother." Snow stated.

"Stay as long as you like." Luke nodded patting her shoulder, and then exited the infirmary to see Pyrrha take off Rem's scarf and stroke his markings.

"I can't believe he did this to you… he tried to mark me when I was a toddler, but my mother stopped him. I will make him pay for what he did to your mother, Rem." Pyrrha promised.

"We will make him pay…" Rem spoke fighting back a tear as she continued to feel his markings.

"We may have only known each for a while… but please, think of me as an older sister. I'll be your family." Pyrrha asked with a smile, and Rem got a sympathetic look.

"Family… sounds nice." Rem spoke, and Luke walked down the hall seeing the various other Enhanced families. The majority of them had two parents.

"I wonder what it'd be like to have a dad…" Luke thought to himself as he exited into the courtyard.

In the middle of his walk it began to rain. He stopped and held his hand out to be sure it was really raining.

"That's odd, it was sunny just a minute ago." Luke spoke, and then he saw a tall muscular black and grey male Phantom that appears unarmed rise from a black portal on the ground.

End Chapter 07 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 08: Raiden

Luke drew his scytheswords facing the Phantom. It then reached out its hand, and Burnt Desire began to fight around in his grip tugging itself toward the Phantom. After a full minute of struggling it flew from his grip to the Phantom's hand. Luke couldn't believe it as the Phantom took several practice swings. The Phantom then charged and Luke also began to run in switching to a two-handed style. The Phantom had incredible physical strength to his surprise, and it kept up with him without any trouble. Luke had to dodge to the side several times because he couldn't handle the pressure its strength put on him in a struggle.

It then ignited Burnt Desire of fire and stabbed the scythe end into the ground sending a wall of fire at Luke. He back flipped over it and saw the Phantom in the air with a large fireball on the end of the scythe end. It slammed it into the ground making the ball fly from under it at Luke and explode into a flame tornado that juggled him in the air until it faded. Luke began to fall and the Phantom was there on the ground as its body opened up letting Luke fall inside of it. He expected to be imprisoned in it… but he found himself soaring through blackness. He eventually landed in a city setting in the rain. There he saw a young man with long spiky caramel hair wearing black boots, slightly baggy tan pants, and a short-sleeved red shirt fighting Sirius using Burnt Desire.

"My, oh my, Raiden… are you angry about what I did to Lunescia? You do realize that you don't stand a chance, don't you?" Sirius taunted.

"Sirius… I will make you pay! For Lunescia's wounds… for the orphanage… and for everyone you've made cry!" Raiden roared flicking his wrist igniting the blade on fire before charging back up continuing to clash with Sirius, obviously losing due to his fury. The two locked blades making Sirius's turn red where they were touching.

"You're pathetic, Raiden… you rely too heavily on the Blade of Damned Flames… but fear not… you'll make a wonderful soldier, as will your friend Lunescia." Sirius taunted, and Raiden knocked him back making flames engulf himself. When they faded, Raiden was dressed in the armor Luke fought just moments ago.

A raging battle broke out between the two swordsmen then. The flames on Burnt Desire began turning from yellowish red to a dark crimson red with hints of black. He sped up more and more, but somehow Sirius was still faster than him. Raiden formed a massive fireball at the tip of Burnt Desire and launched it at Sirius. He just cut through it and in a flesh ran Raiden through the chest.

"I wonder if its next wielder will be more fun than you… a dull sack of hate… I have no desire to face myself… but to face one who will make my heart beat its last." Sirius growled, and then withdrew his blade sheathing it walking away as Raiden fell to his knees.

"Raiden!" Lunescia's voice cried, and a younger version of her wearing black knee-length boots, black safety shorts, a blue mini-skirt, and a black sleeveless shirt with a red X on the chest ran by Luke falling to her knees in front of Raiden. She pulled his helmet off showing blood going down the side of his mouth.

"Raiden, please stay with me…" Lunescia pleaded, and he smiled.

"Lunescia…" Raiden spoke softly.

"I'm such an idiot… why didn't I believe you? You're going to be okay, you hear me?" she spoke beginning to well up.

"Lunescia… you were right… I acted rashly… I wanted to say that… at least one time… before I went away… but the blade wouldn't let me before now… do me a favor… when I pass on… put a seal on Burnt Desire's true power… so nobody else… ends up like… me… thank you for… believing me…" Raiden spoke, and then he closed his eyes falling forward into her arms.

Lunescia began to cry and sniffle. She then let out inaudible screams of frustration as an ambulance arrived. Everything began to go black again.

"Burnt Desire… what is it?" Luke asked looking at the hand he'd usually wield it in.

Luke then found himself back in the real world being hugged by the Phantom he battled. He looked up at it and saw tears coming from the helmet's eyes.

"You're Raiden… aren't you? You were afraid of me ending up like you did." Luke asked, and Raiden's Phantom simply stepped back and sank back into its sigil taking Burnt Desire with it. The rain stopped almost immediately after.

"You reunited him with his sword." Professor Brandt spoke approaching him.

"Just who are you, 'Boss'?" Luke asked.

"I am Professor Lunescia Brandt… I was part of RLNK in my youth… Raiden was our leader… and none of us trusted him when he believed one of our members had been switched… such fools we were." she replied, and then she removed the bandages on her face revealing a scar spanning diagonally across her forehead to her jawline.

"Whoa…" Luke spoke staring at it.

"When Raiden died… I refused the blame at first… I fought with my team members to see Raiden's grudge realized… and exposed the false member for who she was… at the cost of this scar among many others hidden under my robes." Professor Brandt explained looking at the sky.

"So why hide your face?" Luke asked.

"Once I'd exposed her… I realized that it wouldn't bring him back… and that it was partially my fault he had gone on the rampage he did. I, the one person who he had the most faith in, had refused to take his side…" the professor admitted.

"You couldn't bear to show your face, huh?" Luke asked.

"For most of the rest of my education I secretly desired to die… in some hope that it would earn his forgiveness… but my body refused, and grew stronger still, and I almost never knew defeat." she replied.

"So when did you decide to dedicate yourself to Dust?" Luke asked.

"When I'd discovered a new strain of Dust that had unusual properties. It didn't conform to an element nor did it seem to have any special effects… until I saw what it did to plant life. It is not the only experimental Dust either." she replied, and then handed Luke a scythesword the same length as Wilted Rose colored bright gold and white. It had a regal design to it.

"Another one?" Luke asked taking a few practice swings.

"It was forged with a new Dust infused into the metal. We aren't sure what its gun functionality will do in battle. I suggest waiting until you're making contact with the enemy." Lunescia suggested before leaving campus.

Luke returned to the building after that. He took in the halls with a different point of view. He saw now that while he saw this place as home, everyone else saw it as a place to become Hunters and Huntresses. When he got back to the dorm room it was late. He opened the door and a box flew across the room to be shot by Rem. Snow was covering herself with a towel whereas Pyrrha had on her pajamas, although her top was unbuttoned.

"DIE, PERVERT!" Snow yelled.

"Snow, you didn't put the sign up." Pyrrha spoke in an attempt to calm her down.

"What'd I walk in on…?" Luke asked.

"I entered the room and Snow and sister happened to be changing." Rem explained.

"DIE AND FORGET WHAT YOU SAW!" Snow yelled throwing another box only to have Rem shoot it down like the last box.

"Snow, stop it!" Pyrrha scolded stepping toward her giving a disapproving look.

"Listen, this was going to happen eventually, okay? Even then, you don't have to worry about us." Luke explained shrugging his shoulders.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Snow demanded to know.

"We wouldn't go ten feet near an ice queen like you." Luke replied, and fury came right back to her face.

"DIE!" Snow yelled throwing a snow globe, but Pyrrha caught it in midair.

"Enough, Snow!" Pyrrha scolded.

The boys left the room so they could finish changing, but there was a hostile air from Snow's bunk. On the bright side, Snow isn't dumb enough to attack Rem in his sleep. He's a surprisingly good shot even when just waking up. Snow wouldn't go after Luke either as when needed Pyrrha can be a guard dog and wake at the slightest sound. When morning came Snow wouldn't talk to either Luke or Rem. All the way through morning preparations and breakfast she didn't say a word.

"She's not speaking to either of us…" Luke sighed.

"Your comment was a little harsh, Luke." Pyrrha chuckled a bit.

"I had to buy Rem time to reload." Luke stated with his hands behind his head as they walked to class.

"Luckily I didn't have to since sister stepped in." Rem commented, and Luke noticed Snow was powerwalking ahead of the group.

"Snow, I'm sorry, okay? Now slow down or you're going to run into somebody." Luke warned, but she ignored him and self-fulfilling prophecy, she ran into someone making them drop their books.

"I'm so sorry!" Snow exclaimed and began helping gather the books, and when she looked up her eyes met the sapphire left eye and peridot right eye of a male student with messy black hair wearing a black robe-like outfit. She blushed and quickly handed him his books.

"N-No, please, I wasn't paying attention. Sis is gonna kill me if I'm late! G-Gotta go!" the boy spoke gathering the rest of his books and then rushing off.

"Who was he…?" Snow asked out loud looking after him.

"Love at first sight? How cute…" Pyrrha joked.

"I-It wasn't love! He just has beautiful eyes, that's all." Snow argued waving her hands and shaking her head.

"Sounds like love at first sight to me." Luke laughed, and Snow stood up puffing her cheeks and walking off.

"We're going to be late for class if we don't hurry." Rem warned, and they hurried as well.

End Chapter 08 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 09: A Fallen Angel

A full week had passed since Weiss was brought back to New Beacon. Today she'd regained consciousness and found her old teammates around her. A smile came to her face. She saw Luke there as well.

"How are you feeling?" Ruby asked moving her bangs to feel her forehead.

"Better than I was… Luke… you've gotten so big since the last I saw you." Weiss spoke, and Luke rubbed the back of his head blushing a bit.

"It has been a while, Weiss." Luke spoke with a smile.

"You were a newborn the last I saw you…" Weiss smiled back.

"That confirms it, Weiss was kidnapped long before her impostor took part of Ruby's leg." Blake stated.

"What? Part of Ruby's leg…?" Weiss questioned, and then looked down gasping when she saw her prosthetic.

"A lot's happened. It'll take a while to completely fill you in." Ruby laughed.

"Snow, perfect timing." Yang spoke as Snow entered the room.

"Who's this?" Weiss asked.

"Mom… don't you recognize me?" Snow asked nervously, and Weiss's eyes went wide in shock.

"Mom…? I don't… I don't have a daughter…" Weiss replied confused, and then several images come to her head making her groan in pain and begin crying.

"Mom…?" Snow asked.

"No… no… get away… h-his face… his face… it hurts… it hurts…" Weiss choked out continuing to have flashes of scenes of her abuse and even dark figures moving making her cry more and begin curling up. When Ruby touched her shoulder she snapped out of it.

"S-Sorry… I just… everything was so traumatic, it's hard to remember everything that happened to me coherently… some things I guess I've decided are better left locked away…" Weiss sniffled as Ruby rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Weiss, did they make you go through the Enhanced Hunter Program at the White Fang Base?" Luke asked.

"The Enhanced Hunter Program… "Voluntary Parenthood" my foot… White Fang… they did something to me… but it's still a blank… the only thing I can remember about it is that it hurt a lot." Weiss commented scowling a bit.

"Well, how about a paternity test to prove her relation? We didn't have ready access to your DNA before, so we just had your impostor's word that Snow was yours." Yang suggested.

"I have nothing to hide. So I'll do it." Snow spoke trying to hide her nervousness.

"I'd like to know too." Weiss nodded.

That evening Snow couldn't be found anywhere. Luke bought himself a jumbo bag of dragon-shaped gummies and began looking for her. He eventually found Snow hiding out on the balcony just outside their dorm room. Snow was curled up and looked like she was crying. He sat down next to her and looked at the sky.

"You're scared that your life might be a lie, right?" Luke asked, and Snow just nodded. He offered her a gummy but she just turned away from it.

"Listen, I know you're probably extremely worried she won't accept you even if it proves you aren't hers, but trust me I've been there. When I look at some of these other Enhanced Hunters… I notice an element in their life that mine lacks heavily in… know what it is?" Luke asked looking at her, and she simply remained silent.

"Well, mine lacks someone to call 'dad'. Mom doesn't appear interested in romance, and I've sort of never thought about what it'd be like having a dad before actually attending here. Who knows, you might have a dad too. There are two methods to making kids like us. You can use just the Dust, or have a couple impregnate the girl before injecting. I've heard the latter is painful in most cases though." Luke explained, and Snow stayed silent.

"You know… the one fear I had for those three years I was rogue… was that mom would stop loving me. I was way out of line to go running off like that… I was half expecting her to deny I was her son when I returned here… and that Aunt Yang would sock me one for how we last talked… but they didn't. They welcomed me back with open arms… well… open arms plus one, if I'm not counting the prosthetic with Aunt Yang." Luke continued.

"What if she doesn't accept me though…? I've lived my entire life believing without a doubt that I was her daughter… but now I'm completely questioning my entire being." Snow finally spoke on the verge of tears.

"Well. Whether you are or not shouldn't phase you. You're strong, you're a student here, I consider you a friend, so who cares if you are or aren't Weiss's daughter? Think anyone cares that I'm the son of 'Ruby Rose the Scythe Master' when they attack me?" Luke asked, and Snow looked at him to find he's still offering a gummy.

"Regardless of your blood, you're still Snow to me. You're exist, and nobody can change that." Luke smiled, and Snow smiled through her tears taking the gummy.

"Moron…" Snow commented taking a bite of the gummy.

"What'd I say?" Luke asked confused.

The next day Snow avoided Weiss out of fear of the test results. She didn't want to say mother, and then find out she isn't. Luke kept encouraging her though. She began to understand more how Luke worked as well. He doesn't have a father at all, yet he's in an environment where 98% of the student body has parents working on campus. She couldn't help feeling that Luke had a silent hope that she had a father.

The following day everyone was called to the infirmary to hear the results. It was revealed that Snow was indeed the biological daughter of Weiss, but also related to an unknown Faunus. Everyone was shocked.

"So I have a father…" Snow whispered to herself.

"That explains why visions of that man burn… and I don't even know his name. I can hardly remember his face as it is… but what vividly stood out were silver feathers." Weiss spoke looking at Snow.

"Silver feathers?" Blake asked thinking.

"Know anyone like that, Blake?" Yang asked.

"Many Faunus have wings… but there's only one I know of who has silver feathers and he's an urban legend, at best used to make kids go to sleep at night." Blake explained.

"This also confirms it… I'm a mother now. Snow, was it?" Weiss spoke calling to her.

"Y-Yes, mom?" Snow nervously spoke.

"Help me stand." Weiss ordered, and she hurried over to act as a crutch for her.

"Ms. Schnee, are you sure you're well enough to be out of bed?" a nurse asked rushing over.

"I've spent long enough in a bed. There's a lot for me to be briefed on and not a lot of time to do it knowing the Grimm and terrorists of this world. I'm sure there are students who would like to get back to attending their Dust Fundamentals class as well." Weiss replied nodding her head.

Weiss had Snow accompany her to her old teacher dorm room. Teachers each get their own rooms, so Weiss would have plenty of privacy to get to know Snow better. Snow was gleeful to be accepted by her mother, and so very happy to know she wasn't rejected due to how she was brought up until now.

Ren returned to the dorm room to find Pyrrha sitting on Rem's bunk with Rem sitting between her legs on the floor so she can brush his hair. Pyrrha looked to be enjoying herself, but Rem looked about ready to cry at the moment due to the brush constantly breaking through tangles in his hair.

"Rem, you need to take better care of your hair. It's soft, but full of tangles. You need to brush it at least twice a day, wash it thoroughly when bathing, and be sure to give a good brush after that as well." Pyrrha lectured Rem lovingly.

"Is his hair that bad?" Luke asked.

"With the amount of tangles I'm hitting, yes. He refuses to have it cut as well." Pyrrha laughed.

"It's my hair…" Rem commented pouting a bit.

"Which is why you need to take care of it." Pyrrha spoke running her hair through his hair.

"It's just going to get messy again through the day." Rem complained, and Pyrrha smiled compassionately continuing to brush his hair. Despite all of Rem's whining about his hair, Pyrrha was actually very happy to have a younger sibling to care for.

"So what's the status with Snow?" Rem asked.

"Weiss accepted her as her daughter. They're having mother-daughter time right now." Luke explained pointing behind him with his thumb.

"That's great. That should be a load of anxiety off of Snow's shoulders." Pyrrha smiled.

"She should be able to receive proper training with her Semblance now. Her sloppiness until now has been a hindrance to her overall performance." Rem stated.

"Oh, so I wasn't the only one who noticed. I haven't seen her Semblance before though." Pyrrha spoke chuckling nervously.

"Me either, but I do know that she'll get better, especially with her mom behind her now. When I was on my own, thinking of mom is what kept me strong and made my fighting style what it is today. Snow actually has her mom here to train her. Who knows, some day she might even be better than me." Luke spoke smiling.

"Her Semblance gives her wings made of a sort of eternally falling snow, and she can launch different sized icicles at the enemy such as that large one she launched during Team Bonding Class." Rem explained.

"I could totally ride one at a large enemy, or one that makes it hard to reach them…" Luke began to theorize and ended up absorbed in his own tactical thoughts.

"You know, when I first saw Luke I believed he was a fierce person. Now that we've become more of a team, he sort of has a childish way of going about tasks." Pyrrha observed smiling at him.

"Apparently what we're 'seeing more of' is the real Luke, 'a ball of energy that lacks the definition of personal space in his dictionary'… notorious for sneaking into peoples' beds at night… he favored sneaking into Ms. Rose's and Ms. Schnee's beds in particular." Rem explained and Pyrrha got a thoughtful look.

"I'm happy that Luke is going back to the boy Ruby and the others remember him as. Ruby has a concern though… that his smiles aren't genuine. They seem sincere enough though." Pyrrha stated.

"Who can really say? People change." Rem concurred.

Snow returned late that night, and she looked to be very relaxed. In fact, you could say she's never smiled so big before. The following morning as they went to class Snow's smile hadn't waned in the slightest. She had a particular skip to her step as well.

"Luke Qrow Rose!" a girl's voice shouted from down the hall.

Luke turned around only to be pounced by Mero. Her hair now went to her hips held in a ponytail, and she was wearing an outfit similar to Blake's original outfit. At her hip was a whip.

"Mero!" Luke exclaimed smiling.

"You've got some nerve being back for over a month and not saying anything!" Mero scolded him helping him up.

"Wow. The only thing that's changed about you is your hair length." Luke laughed with his arms behind his head.

"Not true! I'm taller! Taller!" Mero shouted.

"Eh, you're always a shorty to me." Luke joked with his signature beaming smile. The smile startled Pyrrha, Rem, and Snow. This was their first time actually seeing the mythical "Luke Smile" told of in Ruby's stories.

"I'm only an inch or two shorter than you!" Mero scolded getting in his face.

"Still shorter." Luke laughed and she puffed up her cheeks.

"You!" she scolded leaping at him throwing punches, and he just kept dodging and made her run circles chasing him around Pyrrha, Rem, and Snow.

"I can't tell… are they fighting or messing around…?" Rem asked confused.

"So immature…" Snow commented gently face palming.

"From what I hear they were close as little kids, so I'd say it's roughhousing between friends." Pyrrha chuckled.

"Jeez Luke… three years and you're still a jerk…" Mero scolded slowing to a stop and breathing hard with her hands on her knees.

"I'm not a jerk, you just take offense at the drop of a hat." Luke laughed panting.

"What kind of friendship is that?!" Snow shouted.

"Luke has always been this way. Well, almost." Mero stated.

"What do you mean almost? I'm the same old me." Luke shot back.

"Oh yeah? I don't see your signature ear-to-ear smile plastered on your face." Mero retorted getting in his face making him look away.

"Maybe I just grew out of it." Luke argued.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire. The only time you aren't using that all the time is when you're worried about something." Mero shot back.

"I don't believe you." Luke dismissed turning around with his hands behind his head.

"You get standoffish when you're trying to hide it too!" Mero shouted making her tail stand up.

"She has him pegged apparently…" Pyrrha nervously chuckled scratching her cheek.

"He's done it so many times that it's muscle memory. Whenever he'd do something stupid he'd bring me along to 'kitten eyes' our way out of a punishment. It only failed to work on mom, but broke Ms. Rose, Ms. Long, and Ms. Schnee every time. Anyway, I hear we'll be facing off against each other come the Team Tournaments." Mero explained with a grin.

"Those are still a thing?" Luke asked turning back around.

"They're tamer than back when we were small. They changed the objective from defeat your opponent to destroy the gem they're given. It makes it painfully obvious when something's not right." Mero told him.

"Sounds simple enough. Is it cross-school?" Luke asked.

"Nope. To prevent another Fall of Beacon, each school holds them solely within that student body. Ms. Long and mom are already making bets." Mero replied.

"Blake biased to your team?" Luke joked.

"Ruby's biased to yours too." Mero shot back.

"Well duh, she's my mom, just like Blake is your mom." Luke smiled, and Mero grabbed his cheeks stretching them.

"Ow! Ow! Quit it!" Luke scolded.

"Smile genuinely damn it!" Mero shot back.

"Well… our moms are going to pressure us to do well. So give 100%, Luke." Mero smiled letting go of his cheeks.

"Moms are gonna mom, huh?" Luke smiled back trying to put on his beaming smile.

"Until the tournament, you'd better be training. I'm not the scaredy cat you used to know anymore." Mero warned walking off.

"Yeah, you've grown out of that scared kitten stance you had." Luke joked.

"I did NOT look like a scared kitten!" Mero scolded.

"Did so!" Luke shot back smiling.

"Would you two quit it already?!" Snow yelled making both flee.

The day went by at a seemingly slower pace than usual. Pyrrha would glance at Luke now and again. She couldn't help thinking about Mero's explanation for Luke's smile. What could have him so worried though? He has family here, friends here, and as far as grades go he's doing well. She wondered about him the entire day. Was Luke shut inside of a cocoon that was still only slightly cracked? After classes she was determined to try and make a crack when a boom shot down the hall and a door soon followed.

"What the…?" Luke spoke, and then the boy Snow crashed into ran past them.

"Get back here!" a girl's voice shouted, and a Faunus girl with rabbit ears and long pink hair in a similar robe-like outfit ran past them chasing after the boy wielding a flail.

"I'll be back…" Snow spoke chasing after them.

"Who were those two?" Luke asked confused.

"Riko and Biko, also referred to as The Twins. Biko dies her hair so she can't be mistaken for Riko, despite the obvious difference that she has rabbit ears and he doesn't. Their mother was a Faunus and their father was human. They live in town and while they're known as a powerful duo, Biko is very quick to get at Riko's throat if he accepts a job and the person mistakes him for her accepting it. They're part of Team MDRB, making them Mero's subordinates." Rem explained.

"She would get stuck with the weirdo's." Luke laughed jokingly.

"Snow has a thing for Riko by the way she chased to see if he's all right." Pyrrha laughed.

"I'm hungry…" Rem spoke as his stomach growled.

"To the food court!" Luke ordered.

They'd gotten their usual meals and sat down. Rem with his Extreme Size burger meal with only ketchup, pickles, and onions on his burger. Luke had three slices of mushroom and sausage pizza. Pyrrha got a plate of turkey with a side of stuffing. Pyrrha glanced at Luke now and again wanting to ask him about his worries. She could almost see it clearly now, Luke had some sort of worry bouncing around in his head. It was evident in how fast he was eating as well. She then decided the food court wasn't the place to bring it up.

That evening Pyrrha waited until Luke was finished with his homework. She then called him to the balcony with her. Luke showed a little concern when she latched the doors.

"What's up?" Luke asked nervously.

"All right. Be open. What's bothering you?" Pyrrha asked.

"Bothering me?" Luke asked tilting his head in confusion as Pyrrha joined him at the railing.

"Mero said it best. When you're worried about something you can't give your best, brightest smile." Pyrrha stated looking at the moon.

"I'm not worried about anything. Mero doesn't know everything about me." Luke said looking at the ground below.

"There's the second sign, you're being standoffish trying to hide it now that you've been discovered. Come on, we're teammates. You can tell me." Pyrrha smiled at him.

"Promise not to laugh…?" Luke sighed getting a depressed look leaning on the railing.

"You have my word." Pyrrha promised.

"It's a nightmare I had… the school was on fire… I was using my Semblance… and my mom… was dead lying on the floor at my feet… she had slash wounds all over her… and I was covered in blood. When that tournament comes, I know that chances are they'll want to see my Semblance… but that nightmare makes me scared… what if that happens? What if I lose control?" Luke admitted tearing up a bit.

"How would you lose control of it?" Pyrrha asked.

"It… it takes away my rational thinking to drastically improve my fighting ability. My mind is focused on nothing more than winning the fight, and doesn't give a DAMN how bad I get hurt if I win at the end. I've even ignored a huge injury to keep fighting once. I wound up regretting it later, but at the time my head didn't care." Luke explained.

"So you're scared of killing your friends and family." Pyrrha smiled hugging him.

"Don't worry. If you do go nuts I'll pull your tail out of the fire. That's what teammates, no, what friends are for." Pyrrha assured him.

At the same time, in a dark home, Ozpin was meeting with Cinder. She wore a cloak to hide herself from any eavesdroppers.

"I see you've considered my offer." Ozpin greeted her.

"Don't get me wrong. I've come to politely decline your offer. I highly doubt anyone wants to see my face again after what I've done." Cinder stated sipping tea.

"I can offer you sanctuary at the very least." Ozpin offered.

"I appreciate the gesture, but I must decline. I'm sure that Ruby and her friends will attempt to take my head if they see me." Cinder replied.

"Then perhaps you can provide me the location of a Faunus." Ozpin asked.

"I know of many. Who did you have in mind?" Cinder replied sipping more tea.

"The One-Winged Faunus… Seraph. I believe he may be the father of one of my students." Ozpin requested.

"You're looking for Seraph? Aren't we all, ahaha? I met with him two weeks ago in the northern kingdom. He's investigating the Semblance passed down user to user. Whether you can find him or not is up to fate." Cinder explained.

A week passed at New Beacon. The Team Tournament was already closing in. Many classes ceased homework assignments in preparation for it. Mero was looking around for Luke between classes, but even his team hadn't seen him. He'd left midway through his 3rd period class and didn't come back according to Pyrrha. So she thought she'd try his old hiding spots when he was grounded or just wanted to be alone. He wasn't hiding out in the hedge maze, and he wasn't cooped in the highest floor of the library, so that left one place… the treehouse that Yang built for them when they were five. She made her way through the woods surrounding the hill, and was expecting to see the small treehouse in the tree. What she found was a large treehouse that connected to at least three others. She climbed the ladder up into it and found Luke slashing apart dummies. He had a strange black light about him, and he was holding Wilted Rose in his teeth wielding his other weapon blade-down. She felt a little sick the longer she stared at him back. The light faded and the feeling went away as he took Wilted Rose from his mouth. She climbed in and walked toward him.

"Here you are." Mero spoke and he turned to her.

"Yeah. I couldn't concentrate in there today." Luke stated.

"I see you've done some remodeling." Mero complimented looking around.

"It was so small when I found it… I just had to expand it. We had some great memories in this place, and now with the expansions I've made we can make even more." Luke nodded.

"You never did like letting go of things you adored. I still remember your face when Ms. Long showed us the tree house for the first time." Mero giggled.

"Well, being students and then upgrading to teachers, they never really had a whole ton of time to spend with us not counting summer break. Aunt Yang spent her own free time and her own money to build it for us. So I couldn't let a memory be a memory." Luke smiled.

"How'd you even afford all of this wood? What about the tools?" Mero asked.

"I bought 'em myself. Rem helped me carry the wood and was a big help in expanding." Luke explained.

"How though? You don't work." Mero pointed out.

"When I was on my own, I'd slay Grimm and sell their armor as trophies. My major marks were bars, because Hunters and Huntresses frequent there. What bar wouldn't look good with trophies of might hanging on their walls?" Luke explained.

"You're something else, Luke." Mero spoke shaking her head with a smile.

"I did what I had to, Mero." Luke laughed.

"Now, did you do what you have to training?" Mero asked.

"I've been training." Luke nodded.

"Have you unlocked your Semblance? I'll be using mine against you for sure when we face off." Mero asked with a smile leaning in with her hands on her hips.

"I… won't be using mine. I always feel dirty after using it." Luke replied looking away rubbing the back of his head.

"Dirty? Like you cheated?" Mero asked confused.

"Dirty in the sense that I'm not okay with what I just did. When I use it, I don't feel like me…" Luke explained.

"Well, if you don't I'll kick your butt in front of everyone in the school. Let's see how you feel with that image in your head." Mero joked.

"Trust me Mero, you don't want to see my Semblance. Not even my mom has seen it." Luke warned.

"I won't know until I face it now will I?" Mero smiled.

"You're adamant about it… but I just can't, Mero. If I had to describe it… I lose all restraint. I don't want to actually end up hurting you." Luke warned again.

"Well, you aren't in a fight to tickle, cuddle, and have fun, Luke. I thought three years in the outside world would have taught you that." Mero laughed.

"I learned a lot of things out there. We may be enhanced, Mero… but we've still got a lot to learn." Luke stated.

"If you give it your all, I can forgive not showing your Semblance." Mero commented.

"If you'll give the same courtesy. I want you to mean it." Luke asked.

"Our goal is to break the gem we're given, not break each other. Keep it in a fair spot, got it? Visible." Mero ordered.

"Oh, 'fair' the queen of cheating at hide-and-seek says." Luke laughed.

"I never cheated!" Mero exclaimed.

"You so did, Ms. Shadow Clone!" Luke shot back.

"You have no proof!" Mero shouted with her tail poofing a bit.

"Yeah-huh. Your mom's word against yours." Luke grinned, and Mero tackled him out the tree house window trying to beat him up.

Both stopped in a compromising mounted position when the bushes began rustling. From them walked a tall, pale, and thin man with very long spiky silver hair. He had amber eyes, and a single silver-feathered wing that looked like it'd definitely been a very long time since it was last preened, although it looked more like a feathery tentacle than a wing. He wore metal-plated dark brown boots, black jeans using a skull belt buckle, a black long-sleeved button up shirt, a red waist coat, and he had on pearl-colored earrings.

"Excuse me, but am I near New Beacon? I got lost on the way here. I was personally invited to oversee the Team Tournament." the man asked.

"Yeah… we'll take you there." Luke spoke pushing Mero off him so he could stand, and then Mero immediately stood up dusting herself off.

So they led the man to New Beacon. With the safety measures in place, he would be attacked on sight if he were uninvited. Since nothing happened, they could believe him. Ozpin met up with them in the lobby, followed by Weiss and Blake.

"Seraph. I'm glad you could make it on such short notice." Ozpin greeted them.

"I never thought I'd see the one-winged Faunus in person…" Blake commented and Seraph looked at her, then to Weiss who was avoiding eye contact.

"From your letter I presume these are members of the team you wanted me to meet?" Seraph asked gazing at Weiss intently.

"Indeed. Please, follow me. Luke, Mero, thank you for showing him in." Ozpin praised, and then the four left.

"He was staring at Ms. Schnee the whole time." Mero commented.

"Think he knows her?" Luke pondered.

At that moment the two felt they were being watched. They turned around and found Ruby staring at them disapprovingly.

"You're both supposed to be in class…" Ruby growled with her hands on her hips.

"It's only geography…" Luke commented.

"It's only foreign language…" Mero added.

"To class. NOW!" Ruby barked and they fled to different hallways.

Ruby then met up with Yang and entered a conference room where Seraph, Ozpin, Weiss, and Blake were waiting. All but Seraph were sitting. There was a feeling of tension in the air of the room.

"Well, I guess we'll open with—" Ozpin began when Weiss motioned him to stop.

"I'll ask him." Weiss decreed standing from her chair.

"Weiss… don't push yourself." Blake spoke in a soft concerned voice.

"I said I'll ask him. Seraph… I'm told you attempted jailbreaking the prisoners of the White Fang base I was in captivity at. Is that true?" Weiss asked nervously.

"I did indeed attempt it. I was, however, unsuccessful." Seraph replied looking out the window at the students walking below with his hands behind his back.

"Every time I see your face… it burns the back of my mind… so I have to know… are you Snow's father?" Weiss asked fighting back the urge to cry.

"Is that the name you gave her?" Seraph asked back and Ruby went to stand but Yang held her in her seat.

"You took advantage of me in my weakened state, and forced me to bear your child? Yes or no?" Weiss asked feverishly.

"Do you want the short version that is terrible, or the version that is the truth but sounds like a convenient excuse?" Seraph asked back looking at her from the side, and she growled gritting her teeth.

"All right… let's hear Option B…" Weiss growled trying to contain her anger.

"I infiltrated the base as a new guard for the prison ward. When I wasn't sabotaging security systems, I was keeping other guards from beating you by pretending to be. What I was really doing was trying to snap you out of your delirious state. Naturally, my attendance to a single prisoner rose suspicions about me. I silenced the largest threats as covertly as possible. One day I found you had severe injuries from a surprise late night beating. I wouldn't let the abuse continue, so I planned on getting her out, but a supervisor came in. So in a panic I believed the best means of weaning off their beatings until I could free her was to impregnate her and then inject Daemonia Dust provided by my employer at the time. The White Fang is depraved, but they'd never harm a pregnant woman be they prisoner or free." Seraph explained.

"So why didn't you just bust her out in the same day?" Blake blurted out with her fists shaking in rage.

"My cover was blown an hour later by my inside informant who decided to go turn-coat as I was ready to make my move. I had to flee and abandon the facility. I did manage to permanently cripple their defense systems on the way out though, which I assume is how Sirius was able to break in so easily a decade later." Seraph explained turning to fully face them. Weiss got in his face appearing absolutely livid.

"You weren't kidding… that definitely sounds like a convenient excuse…" Weiss growled trying not to grab the hilt of her rapier.

"Yet it is the truth. I am the father of your child, but if it could have happened differently I'd have preferred it. I'm not the best at high pressure decisions. If you wish it, I will take responsibility. If you wish to never see my face again, it shall be done once the Team Tournament is finished." Seraph stated staring into her eyes making her back up a bit calming down significantly.

"Well, Weiss? It's your decision." Ozpin stated.

"I… need time to think. I'll have my answer after the tournament." Weiss stated, and then left the room to find PRLS and Mero pressed against the wall having been eavesdropping.

"Yo." Luke nervously greeted her with a wave.

"I'd expect this of them… not you, Pyrrha." Weiss commented with a disapproving look.

"Sorry. I felt awkward waiting for them…" Pyrrha apologized with a smile.

That evening Snow made her way to the arena where the tournament would be held. Standing on the upper level in the judge's booth was Seraph, overlooking the ring as it was constructed from marble. Clenching her fists, she walked to the booth to confront him.

"You're my father." Snow stated in a frustrated tone.

"You had questions for me, but now that I'm here you can't find the words for them?" Seraph asked without turning around, and Snow took a deep breath.

"You claim to be bad in pressure situations. What stopped you from going back to save mom?" Snow asked.

"The White Fang would have known I was coming and that I would never risk the prisoners if they threatened to execute them. When Sirius went there they knew he didn't give a damn about the prisoners." Seraph replied without turning.

"Then why not do what Sirius did and slaughter them?" Snow asked getting steamed.

"That would be counterproductive to my intentions for Faunus and human relations. By freeing prisoners without bloodshed I succeed in causing tensions to simmer down with their safe returns home." Seraph explained turning to face her.

"So… you just left mom to have me in that hellhole?!" Snow demanded to know tearing up.

"Hate me if you wish. You've every right, and so does your mother. Just know that I fully intend to keep my word based on her decision." Seraph sighed turning back around.

"How can you act so emotionless about it?! You robbed mother of her innocence! Of her first romance! Of the passion of her first time!" Snow scolded grabbing her gladius.

"I'm not being emotionless. I'm just not losing my cool over adult matters like a child." Seraph shot back without turning around, and Snow lunged at him only for him to break into a swarm of silver feathers that moved behind her reforming his body.

"Use your head, Snow. Blowing up like this will do nothing but waste energy better spent getting ready for the Team Tournament." Seraph scolded and Snow continued swinging at him only for him to smoothly evade every swing and thrust.

"You deserve to die for not doing anything! For abandoning her after having your way with her!" Snow yelled swinging wildly.

Seraph glared at her and let her hit his wing causing it to explode into hundreds of individual silver feathers that then encircled her all aiming their tips at her making her freeze. She didn't make a move for fear of the swarm coming at her all at once. Genuine fear was plastered on her face.

"Have you calmed down?" Seraph asked and she very slowly nodded.

"Good. Standby Formation." Seraph ordered and the feathers withdrew to reform his wing.

"I… I'm sorry…" Snow spoke looking at her feet in shame.

"I know that you believe I should have been there for her, but not everyone's life is a fairy tale. Many will have a very difficult life, or even a compromising one. What matters is doing what you can keep from giving in to your inner demons." Seraph sighed gently ruffling her hair and Snow began crying.

"I don't want mother to make you leave… I found out I have both a mother and father… I haven't known my real mother for the majority of my life… I didn't even know you existed… don't make me wait any longer to see what a real family is like…" Snow begged through her sniffles and hiccups.

"It's up to your mother if I stay or not… but I'm sure you can influence her decision. As your mother, she must consider your feelings as well." Seraph sighed with a smile.

Snow tried her best to straighten herself and left. On the way out of the arena she bumped into Weiss.

"M-Mother…" Snow spoke in surprised.

"I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. Do you really want a family that badly?" Weiss asked with a smile.

"I see how Luke is with Ms. Rose… and how Mero is with Ms. Belladonna… more than anything… I want to know what it's like…" Snow admitted with tears coming to her eyes again, and Weiss hugged her to her chest.

"I wanted to hear your opinion before I made my final decision. Thank you." Weiss smiled stroking Snow's hair, and then walked by her to the judge booth where Seraph still stood.

Several days went by and Weiss could be seen speaking with Seraph more often. She almost seemed friendlier as well, even referring to him by name. Preparations for the Team Tournament went smoothly especially with Weiss and Seraph coordinating placement of the various sections. Soon enough, everything was in place… but Ozpin called a last minute meeting.

"A recent problem has been brought to my attention…" Ozpin announced.

"What problem?" Jaune asked confused.

"Indeed. Everything has gone ahead of schedule, according to Weiss's reports." Blake stated.

"It's not a problem relating to the preparations… but to three certain students." Ozpin explained sipping some hot chocolate.

"Gee, wonder who they could be." Yang spoke sarcastically.

"Luke Rose, Snow Schnee, and Mero Belladonna. All three are under the minimum participation age of 16 as dictated in our revised guidelines. In other words, for them to legally participate they must prove not just to us but to a higher audience that they can perform at the same level if not higher than that of students older than them." Ozpin explained taking another swig.

"Higher audience?" Weiss asked.

"Those who hold a higher status than you, our staff… in other words, known authorities on combat." Ozpin spoke, and Ruby's eyes lit up.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Ruby asked giddily.

"It means… that we will be expecting Qrow Branwen, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Winter Schnee to come and watch preliminary battles with the three underage students against you, our staff." Ozpin announced turning with a smile.

"Yes! Uncle Qrow gets to meet Luke for the first time!" Ruby exclaimed with glee.

"Dad and mom in one place…? How'd you convince her?" Yang asked.

"I phoned in a favor from a friend. You could say Raven has a… special admirer with a shot on her at all times." Ozpin chuckled.

"A sniper… not the cleanest method, but one way of motivating someone to come I guess." Blake shrugged.

So a few days passed, and at last the day arrived. More specifically, the boat arrived. The RWBY team was there to greet them. Ruby and Yang hugged Qrow and Taiyang, but there was very awkward greeting between them and Raven. Weiss and Winter shared a long conversation that didn't end until they actually got to New Beacon's gates. Once inside the building, the big introductions came. Luke was thoroughly looked over by Qrow and Taiyang. Snow went the extra mile to look presentable for Winter's inspection of her. Mero had no worries meeting the four of them. Her anxieties would surface when Blake's parents would come to visit later in the year.

No verdicts were given just yet and they all headed for the arena where Ozpin was waiting. He had a smile on his face.

"Welcome. I'm glad you all had a safe journey." Ozpin greeted them.

"I know you said they were underage… but I didn't think you meant three years underage." Qrow spoke.

"Snow is four years underage, actually. She's younger than Luke and Mero by a year." Weiss admitted.

"Then how is Luke the oldest of the three if Ruby and Blake got pregnant at the same time?" Winter asked.

"I'm was an accelerated birth. So I developed about 35% faster than Mero did. I'm three months older than her." Luke smiled with his hands behind his head.

"You want these three to really participate…?" Taiyang asked nervously.

"Believe me, after their preliminary battles you'll see just what level they fight on despite their young age. In fact, Ruby wasn't much older than them when she first attended Beacon, and I'd dare to say that Ruby wouldn't have stood a chance if she'd fought them back then." Ozpin smiled.

"Is that so? Then I can't wait to see them back up your praise, Ozpin." Raven grinned.

"Luke, right? Ruby tells me your middle name was chosen after me." Qrow addressed Luke.

"Yeah. Luke 'Qrow' Rose." Luke replied.

"You use Scytheswords… similar to my weapon, but different. I'm told Ruby designed them too." Qrow analyzed looking at Luke's weapons.

"Yeah. Well, the original anyway. This one was a… 'Employee Bonus' from a partner of mine." Luke explained pulling out his new blade.

"Mind if I hold it?" Raven asked, and he handed it to her handle first.

"Interested, Raven?" Qrow chuckled.

"In the weapon's design. The bulk of the weight is in the handle instead of the end of the blade… you sacrifice heavy striking power in favor of improved grip on the weapon itself. Interesting considering how many people you've killed with this type of weapon." Raven examined thoroughly looking over the weapon.

"I did what I had to at the time. If I could have avoided it I would have, but people really don't like being told no for an answer." Luke commented with a sigh.

"You've… killed people?" Taiyang asked in shock.

"Looks are deceiving, no?" Ozpin laughed taking a drink from his mug.

Afterward, a meeting was held to determine who would face one of the three. After much debate, it was decided that Luke would face Jaune, Mero would face Yang, and Snow would face Nora. Their goal would be the same as in the tournament – retrieve or destroy the crystal the opponent holds. Shortly after, the visitors were given a room. Preliminaries would proceed the following day.

That same night Aizen called Luke to meet with Professor Brandt at the gates of New Beacon. According to Aizen, it was important.

"Luke. Seraph is on campus, is he not?" the professor asked.

"Yeah. He's Snow's dad." Luke replied.

"Wherever he goes, chaos and destruction will surely follow. I'm having my best intelligence gatherer keep a close eye on every student on campus… to be sure there aren't any 'sudden new arrivals'. I can't give you anything clear at the moment, but for now beware anyone claiming to be called the 'Bird of Paradise'." she warned.

"Bird of Paradise?" Luke asked tilting his head.

The professor left without another word, leaving Luke utterly confused. He spent the entire night thinking about it until he couldn't take it and went to the library. In every section he looked and looked for anything pertaining to the name. He couldn't find anything, and it was 2am when he got back to the dorm room. What little sleep he got was welcome given the preliminaries the next morning.

When noon rolled around Luke was called first into the arena to face Jaune. As soon as the battle began Luke moved fast looking for openings in Jaune's stance. Jaune seemed on even ground with Luke… until he began using the curves of his blade to make openings on Jaune's shield stance so he could try and find the crystal. Jaune stiffened his stance to make it harder on Luke.

The fight continued on as Luke tried to find the crystal while evading attack. Luke struck Jaune's shield with his gold weapon triggering its gun feature electrifying the blade. The power sent a very powerful shock through Jaune comically making his skeleton flash now and then as his body flailed from being shocked. After it ended Jaune fell on his back twitching and Luke spotted the crystal cleverly hidden on his shield arm's wrist so his shield would conceal it. He claimed it and it was deemed he'd passed… although Jaune had to be carried out on a stretcher.

It was now Mero's turn against Yang. Mero was nervous, since she's only ever sparred with her mother. Yang had a confident grin on her face.

"Come on, kitty-kitty. It's right here." Yang taunted pointing to the crystal worn boldly around her neck.

The fight began and Mero charged with twin ninja short blades. Mero's usual style was hindered by the fact she was going for the crystal and not actually to attack Yang. This unfortunately led to Mero getting smacked around a bit and almost knocked out of the ring numerous times. She continued trying nevertheless.

"Mero! Stop worrying about hurting Aunt Yang! In the tournament, that mindset will lead to a fast defeat! The crystal is your target, but if you can't get to it with force take another route!" Luke shouted, and Mero stopped a second to reassess the situation.

"Can he do that?" Winter asked.

"There's nothing in the rules saying he can't give her advice. It's coaching that he can't do." Ozpin chuckled sipping his drink.

Mero charged and then split into a horde of shadow clones catching Yang off guard. The swarm leapt onto Yang creating a massive pile. Seconds after Yang uppercut the pile into nothing sending Mero soaring through the air landing on her back.

"Nice try, kitty. Numbers won't do it either." Yang chuckled, until Mero sat up.

She had the crystal in her teeth making Yang feel for it, and then smile nodding at her. It was a risky tactic, but it worked out in Mero's favor. Mero stood and Yang ruffled her hair.

"Dog pile and frisk… you're a sneaky kitty too." Yang praised.

At last it was time for Snow's bout against Nora. Snow is currently failing Single Combat, so she could only feel fear now that she was facing her instructor. As soon as it began Nora was on Snow in seconds swinging away. Snow was dodging trying hard not to get blown away by her hammer. No matter how she tried she found herself unable to do anything offensive against Nora.

"Why did we decide it was a good idea for her to fight Nora again?" Ren asked nervously.

"She never goes outside her comfort zone when training." Blake replied without taking her eyes off the battle.

The fight continued as Snow kept trying to avoid getting hit. Mero and Pyrrha were praying for her. Luke was visibly becoming agitated. Snow evaded a swing only to be slammed with a second spin knocking her to the ring's edge. She could hardly stand after that.

"Damn it, Snow! If you have no time to think, then just act! Forget about a plan of attack and just attack! Not every enemy is going to give you breathing room, so adapt!" Luke yelled and Snow looked at him crying… but nodded before charging at Nora.

Nora swung and Snow sild underneath her. She threw her sword like a javelin making Nora duck. When she looked back Snow was gone, and she looked up too late to notice Snow overhead. Snow front flipped and landed an RKO on her knocking the crystal off of her person. Nora sprang to her feet holding her head as Snow grabbed the crystal rolling away breathing heavily still sniffling.

"Am I bleeding…? I think I'm bleeding…" Nora commented rubbing where her head hit the ground.

"Well done, Snow." Ozpin congratulated.

"I'd count it as interfering…" Winter commented.

"When someone's stuck behind a wall, it's up to ones allies and family to break them through it. Snow had no idea what to do against an opponent like Nora, so Luke gave her a rude awakening to the ability to adapt based on the combat situation at hand." Raven argued.

"I see why you chose Luke as leader, Blake. Not only can he keep his cool, but he learned skills in those three years he was gone that would normally take at least ten to fully develop. He imparted a lesson to each of them. He taught Mero to think outside the box, and then he taught Snow how to throw the box away." Weiss nodded happily.

"He ran away for three years?" Qrow asked.

"Long story…" Ruby chuckled nervously.

The three were told to rest up well, because the annual Team Allocation Bracket would occur the next day to decide when their teams would participate. That same night the Pre-Tournament Dance would be held as a means of relieving stress for the coming battles. The entire rest of the day Luke and Snow remained in the dorm room. Qrow stopped by and had Luke explain the entirety of the events leading up to his three-year absence. Luke was still concerned about the Bird of Paradise that Professor Brandt mentioned though.

That night, Weiss was looking for Seraph when she spotted him surrounded by Beowolves. She rushed to help, but all of a sudden his wing burst into hundreds of feathers again as he called out formation names perforating and slashing apart the Grimm. Weiss approached him when it was all over and his wing had reformed.

"What was that?" Weiss asked.

"My Semblance… the Wings of Destiny. Well, it was wings until I lost my left one as a boy. I guess it's just 'Wing of Destiny' now." Seraph laughed.

"Does it hurt when you use that?" Weiss asked nervously.

"Incredibly so… but I'm a masochist, so it's fine." Seraph replied.

"That's so vulgar! You truly match your nickname… Fallen Angel." Weiss told him, and he laughed a bit more.

"Is that my little nickname now? It seems I get a new one every other month nowadays. At least it's a decent nickname. A lot better than when I was called the One Winged Angel of Death." Seraph chuckled with a smile.

"It's late. You should get some rest." Weiss suggested.

"As should you. Snow will worry if she sees her mother tired from lack of sleep." Seraph smiled.

"The same could be said about her father." Weiss shot back crossing her arms.

"That's my secret, Weiss. I always look tired." Seraph joked.

End Chapter 09 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Bird of Paradise —ARRIVAL—

It was nice and cool the morning of the Team Allocation Bracket ceremony. PRLS had gotten up early to get front-row seats in the auditorium. Team MDRB had the same idea and arrived mere minutes after they did. The two teams sat next to each other because Mero plopped down in the chair left of Luke, who'd fallen asleep in his chair already. Snow made sure to sit by Riko, who looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep. Biko was on his other side with Pyrrha by her. The fourth member of MDRB had tan skin, long velvet hair, and wore a cowgirl-type outfit with two guns holstered on each side of her chaps. She sat down by Rem, who looked drowsy as it was.

"So you use guns too? What's the capacity on that bad boy, huh? Each of mine has a clip holding ten rounds each. Of course I also keep spare clips on me at all times. Can't go running out of ammo at a bad time, right? Do you keep spare ammo on hand? Who am I kidding, you're a gunslinger, of course you do!" the fourth member blabbed eventually talking Rem to sleep making her pout a bit.

"So, like, you're his sister… but you're twice his age? How are you still a student?" Riko asked Pyrrha.

"I kinda died for a while…" Pyrrha nervously chuckled.

"Died?! You don't just die and come back!" Riko exclaimed startling Rem and Luke awake leaping from their chairs in combat stance with their weapons looking around frantically.

"Calm down, we're in the auditorium you goofs!" Mero laughed smacking her knee.

"Always be on alert…" Luke shot back as the two sat back down.

Time passed and the auditorium began filling with students. Soon it was 7:30, and Ozpin tapped the microphone getting the student body's attention.

"Good morning students. This morning we'll be slotting which teams will be competing when and against who, as we did last year. Those who made it far last year, I hope you've been training diligently. Those who didn't make it very far, that goes double. Unlike last year, we now have the titantron to generate the bracket instead of manually deciding via a lottery wheel with matching numbers." Ozpin announced as the large screen above turned on revealing a large bracket.

"As you can see, we've divided you all by year first. So everyone will participate at first, and then once the individual years are finished deciding who is their top team it'll be on to the second tier of the tournament, and finally to the third tier where a definitive winner will be chosen. We will now send a copy of this to each student's scroll, so remember your match times and arrive on time." Ozpin explained.

"Aw man, we're on opposite sides of the bracket…" Mero groaned looking at her scroll.

"So don't get eliminated before we get to face off then." Luke chuckled.

"Same goes for you." Mero shot back with a friendly nudge.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing as the staff set up for the dance that night. A lot of the students were getting in last minute training, because the next day there wouldn't be time. In particular, Luke was training harder than usual. There was a tense air about him as he trained that drew Qrow to him.

"You look like something's rubbing you the wrong way." Qrow spoke leaning on a tree.

"Am I that obvious?" Luke asked resting a bit.

"You can tell Grandpa Qrow. What's eating you?" Qrow asked.

"My Semblance. I really don't want to use it on anyone." Luke sighed.

"So… don't. Simple, right?" Qrow chuckled.

"It's not that simple… everyone I go against is going to use theirs, solely for the fact that while I can't be held accountable for those deaths I am the one behind them." Luke explained turning to look at him.

"I see. You can't just take the lumps either, your mom would never stand for it. What makes you so uncomfortable using it?" Qrow asked.

"A nightmare where I wound up killing mom…" Luke sighed heavily.

"Hmm. Sounds to me like you just haven't accepted it as part of you yet. You see yourself as a monster when using it, and that leads you to have zero confidence in your own power. So how about this? You come at me with your Semblance activated. I'll give you the confidence you need." Qrow suggested drawing his weapon.

"What?" Luke asked confused.

"Come on. I'm an authority on combat… trust me, I can handle anything you throw at me." Qrow grinned.

"If you're sure…" Luke sighed, and then closed his eyes focusing.

The wind blew gently, and then began getting a little stronger. Black lines began to etch out from the sides of Luke's eyes spooking Qrow. Immediately after Luke opened his eyes showing that his irises had turned blood red. He began growling like an animal and put the handle to his golden sword up to be held by his teeth. After that a clawed gauntlet of darkness formed around his free hand as Wilted Rose's colors suddenly became vibrant.

Luke was suddenly on Qrow in an instant swinging wildly making him have to evade and block at the same time. Luke's fighting style was nothing like he showed against Jaune now. It was coordinated, yet it appears to have no rhyme or reason to it. Luke was like a wild animal that'd been back into a corner. Qrow's foot slipped in the mud making him take a claw slash to the shoulder as he kicked Luke away on the way down.

"Shit… you okay Luke?" Qrow asked sitting up holding his shoulder, and his eyes widened seeing Luke with three of his limbs on the ground giving him a wild glare. It was at that moment that Qrow understood Luke's fear of his Semblance.

Luke leapt like a beast at Qrow soaring through the air at high speed. He moved fast evading and slammed the butt of his weapon on Luke's neck making him turn back to normal falling unconscious to the ground. Qrow hadn't fought anything quite like that before, and knew why Luke was afraid. His Semblance called on his inner darkness, and he doesn't know how to cope with it causing him to lose control of himself. Qrow carried him back to the main building and explained to the staff, especially Ruby, not to allow Luke to use his Semblance during the tournament.

Ruby and Yang were more concerned about his shoulder wound, which Qrow brushed off as a scratch. He was adamant that Luke's situation was more urgent that caring for a wound. Eventually Raven had to hold him down so they could treat his wound, despite his protests to find out more about why Luke's Semblance is out of control. After being tended to, Qrow set off to look for something in the library.

Soon enough he was joined by Seraph. Qrow looked at him and noticed a book he had with him. Seraph didn't say a word and opened it to a page depicting a figure with wings fighting a beastlike figure.

"The Bird of Paradise… and the Demon of Seasons… one wishes to bring ruin to the world as a means of peace… the other desires to relish what they already have, for true world peace is a lie." Seraph explained while flipping pages.

"What? You're saying what's happening to Luke is because of this?" Qrow asked.

"It's precisely because of this. Every so often the Bird of Paradise and the Demon of Seasons are reincarnated, and are destined to fight one another." Seraph replied turning to a page where the beastlike creature has torn out the winged figure's heart.

"What, so Luke is this 'Demon of Seasons'?" Qrow asked.

"A reincarnation of it, it seems. Or at least, he's been trusted with its power. In order for that to happen, he had to have met the original Demon of Seasons. It changes form now and then, so no one knows what it truly looks like." Seraph replied stroking the page.

"Why would it choose a kid?" Qrow asked.

"Nobody can put a finger on either the Bird of Paradise or the Demon of Seasons. They just make a reincarnation to fight on their behalf. I knew a Bird once… she was absolutely obsessed with completely wiping out the world population. I put her down myself." Seraph replied coldly.

"Will Luke have to fight that Bird of Paradise?" Qrow asked nervously.

"The Bird of Paradise naturally hunts down the Demon of Seasons. It's in their instincts to do so." Seraph replied.

"Then Luke participating in the tournament would be painting a giant target on New Beacon…" Qrow grimaced.

"The new Bird of Paradise has been here for some time… she just didn't know Luke was the Demon until recently. She's biding her time, in other words." Seraph explained.

"Can't we do anything?" Qrow asked.

"What can we do? Once the Demon and Bird clash, no force on this planet will be able to separate them until the battle is over and done." Seraph replied.

"Is… is that true…?" Qrow asked nervously gritting his teeth.

"You're really gullible, you know that?" Seraph replied fighting a smile.

"Huh…?" Qrow asked blinking twice.

"The Bird is a thing, but the Demon of Seasons part is completely made up. Read the pages, it just tells of the hero that stopped the first Bird of Paradise." Seraph chuckled, and Qrow eagerly scanned the pages, and then gave a disapproving look at Seraph who burst out laughing.

"You were yanking my chain…" Qrow growled.

"Oh, not entirely… the threat of the bird is real… but unrelated to Luke's Semblance troubles. You missed the meeting where I explained the Bird of Paradise to the others, so I came to personally explain it." Seraph spoke wiping away a tear.

"Then what is causing it?" Qrow asked agitatedly.

"His own internal fears and insecurities. He doesn't think he can control it, he's afraid of hurting the ones close to him, and most of all he secretly believes everyone hates him for what he's done. He doesn't feel safe even around friends anymore. Those three years of solitude on the road truly got to him." Seraph explained seriously.

"So if he can get over those, he should be able to fix how his Semblance behaves?" Qrow asked.

"It won't be immediate either. It'll be gradual as you slowly but surely try to clear away his anxieties." Seraph replied.

"Anything I can do to help him, I'll do it. I'd have visited earlier if I'd known Ruby had a kid of her own." Qrow stated.

"Well. Try not to let personal emotions run rampant." Seraph smiled.

"He needs positive support more than anything now. He still thinks he's on the run." Qrow stated.

"Or in all of this he feels guilty more than anything about those he killed…" Seraph hypothesized.

"He fought in self-defense right? Sometimes people have to do what they have to in order to survive, and sometimes that includes killing the enemy." Qrow reasoned.

"Qrow. Don't abandon Luke." Seraph smiled and then walked out of the room.

The evening was filled with excitement over the dance. Luke hadn't come to in the infirmary yet though, and Ruby hadn't left his bedside as a result. At some point she fell asleep, and a female student with long red hair that turns golden at the tips entered. Her amber irises appeared to be wings around black voids for pupils. She walked to Luke's side and touched the side of his face making the black marks of his Semblance come out bringing a grin to her face.

"You're a hard one to get alone, Luke Rose. Of all the people I've seen, the people I've met, and the people I've saved, you deserve it the most out of all of them. Look at how you suffer from your own internal darkness. You could break soon if this keeps up. I don't want this world to have another Salem on their hands… so this one is on the house… be grateful that I'm feeling generous." the girl talked to his unconscious body, and then kissed him making immense golden wings burst from her back making brilliant white feathers fall all over the room.

His Semblance marks began going from black to a light red, and then from a light red to crimson. After she pulled away her wings flickered between gray and their golden color making her hold her chest grimacing in pain. The flickering stopped after a minute and her wings receded into her back again causing her to fall over startling Ruby wake. She quickly checked the girl's pulse to find she was merely unconscious. After getting her into a bed Ruby noticed the feathers all over the room. She touched one of them and it turned to soot. Moments later Luke groaned and came to as his Semblance marks vanished once again.

"Mom…?" Luke asked looking around tiredly.

"I'm here." Ruby replied walking to him, and he suddenly pulled her close beginning to cry.

He didn't say anything, and simply cried into her chest. Ruby held him the entire time. In fact, this was the first time she'd seen Luke cry since he was a baby. She had no clue what raised the flood gates, but she welcomed it with open arms. Sometimes, no matter how painful it feels, you have to cry. He cried to her for a very long time. Several years of hiding his feelings were now pouring out of the bottle.

It was late night, and the dance was in full swing when Luke finally recovered enough sense to speak. He talked with Ruby about everything – what he was scared of when he set out, how badly he just wanted to turn tail and go home, his difficulty training to fight Grimm without a teacher, and how he began to hear police sirens in his sleep due to being wanted. Ruby listened to all of it with a mature and motherly smile. After it was all over she hugged him tightly.

"Yet here you are. Alive and a free boy. Mommy's killed people too, sweetie. The weight of it is very difficult to carry, but doing it is a way of living on for the people you took the lives of." Ruby spoke stroking his hair.

"You did?" Luke asked.

"Yes. When I stopped Salem from destroying mankind with your Aunt Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Ren, and Nora. Several others joined us for that colossal battle too. You remember Salem from my bedtime stories to you right?" Ruby asked.

"You said she was this crazy witch lady." Luke replied.

"She really was. She ripped old Beacon apart, she thought she'd won… but what she'd really done after the dust settled was painted a giant target on herself and her council." Ruby chuckled.

"Blake said she wasn't as crazy as your stories made her out to be." Luke grinned.

"Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit to get some laughs out of you." Ruby admitted looking up with a smile.

"It really worked back then." Luke commented.

"I bet your team is waiting for you at the dance. Let's get you ready." Ruby smiled, and they left the infirmary.

Meanwhile at the dance, Ren and Jaune were standing at the bar with punch in hand. Ren looked very conflicted, and Jaune grinned at him. He then stood up and stretched.

"You gonna ask her?" Jaune prodded.

"I… I can't do it… there are too many people…" Ren sighed heavily while swirling his finger on the rim of his cup.

"We got you and Nora on separate sides of the room solely so you could prepare yourself, man. You brought the ring didn't you?" Jaune asked.

"I did… but… I just can't…" Ren sighed again.

"Come on, I'll be your wing man." Jaune smiled patting Ren's back.

"Jaune… I appreciate it, but… I'll do it some other time." Ren smiled.

"Nora's been waiting for quite a few years now, Ren. You gotta man up. How long does she gotta wait? We've got atmosphere, we've got soothing music… it's the perfect setting isn't it?" Jaune pep-talked him.

"Jaune, I… I just don't think I can…" Ren sighed standing.

"Fine." Jaune told him getting a dark grin on his face.

"Thank you for understanding…" Ren spoke walking across the room.

"Everyone! If I can have your attention please! Ren has something he wants to say to a very special lady!" Jaune announced making Ren about fall on his face and then half-turn glaring at Jaune who gave a thumbs up with one hand pointing ahead of him with the other.

As soon as Ren looked Nora was right in front of him. He went cherry red as she tilted her head at him. Ren sighed and then cleared his throat.

"Nora… we've known each other… a very long time. I know a lot of times it seems like I'm annoyed… or frustrated with you… but whenever you go and do something silly… I can't help but smile. You live by your own beat, and don't let anything get you down even when there's nothing to smile at. When I've given up, you always show me a new path. So… Nora Valkyrie… will you marry me?" Ren proposed getting on one knee presenting a beautiful wing-shaped ring to Nora.

"Yes… yes… a thousand times yes!" Nora exclaimed tackling Ren onto the floor kissing him over and over as applause filled the room.

As things calmed down a bit, and Ren slid their engagement ring onto Nora's finger, Luke and Ruby entered the room. Luke's bangs had been trimmed a bit and combed to the side. His attire was swapped for a jet black suit with a crimson rose corsage. He felt it was too much, but Ruby insisted on the outfit as it was a formal dance. He needed the haircut anyway. Luke approached his friends almost nervously.

"You look good. You cut your hair too." Mero smiled happily.

"No wonder it took you so long to get here." Snow laughed.

"I heard he'd passed out after overexerting himself. It's good to see you didn't hurt yourself." Rem nodded.

"Thanks Rem." Luke smiled.

"Oh that's right, you missed it. Ren proposed to Nora." Mero explained to him.

"Really? About time. Nora's always venting to us that she wants him to propose." Luke laughed.

"Jaune was his wingman, funnily enough." Pyrrha laughed.

"Now who's going to be Jaune's wingman for you?" Luke joked.

"W-What?" Pyrrha asked shocked.

"Don't think we haven't noticed how you look at Instructor Arc." Snow laughed.

"What are you talking about?" Pyrrha asked nervously.

"You aren't exactly secretive about it…" Rem commented.

"Even if it were true, he's a teacher now and I'm still a student." Pyrrha spoke turning a little red.

"You're actually around the same age, right? I doubt anyone here would say anything if you dated." Luke laughed.

"Well… that can wait until after the tournament." Pyrrha spoke smiling as she blushed deep red.

"You waited last time too…" Yang whispered passing by discretely making Pyrrha's eyes widen, and then get a sad look holding her chest confusing the others. Pyrrha then quickly walked over to Jaune making them chuckle a bit.

The dancing and festivities seemed to go on endlessly, and the night was still young. In the midst of it, Luke managed to sneak out of the room and take a walk on his own. He felt a presence while he was unconscious, and its influence seemed to linger inside his chest. He wanted to find out just what was causing it, when the girl that purified him stepped into the hall from the infirmary.

"Couldn't stay away, could you?" she smiled.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

"Well… to my friends and the teachers at this school, I'm Victoria Lawson. To my close friends and followers… I'm the Bird of Paradise." she introduced herself curtsying.

"Bird of Paradise… I've heard about you… or at least what your previous incarnations have done." Luke told her.

"Trust me, I'm very different from my other incarnations. I'm devoid of an evil influence… so I am unhindered by self-desire and hunger for power. Why, I'm the reason you were able to open back up, in fact." Victoria giggled.

"How do I know that?" Luke asked.

"Luke… don't you trust me? I haven't given you a reason not to, right? All I've done so far is help you. Can't we be friends?" Victoria asked with a grin.

"It's a little odd that you've suddenly chosen me to confront. A little convenient, even." Luke stated with a serious face.

"Well, I wasn't a student at this school back when your darkness first began to grow. If I were, I'd have dealt with you then and there. Since I was little, I was told that I was destined to help people. Of course, using my power to purify the darkness in someone takes a lot out of me. It's already night, which tells me I had to use a lot of my strength to heal you." Victoria explained.

"Heal me? What did you do exactly?" Luke asked nervously.

"Simple. I took the fracture in your soul's heart and mended it with the power of light… the element employed by the true Bird of Paradise that resides in my heart of hearts." Victoria replied with a smile putting her arms over her chest in an X shape.

"So why do I feel weird?" Luke asked.

"Why, your body has lived with darkness crawling around inside it for so long that it's forgotten what it's like to be clean and pure as you once were as a small boy." Victoria explained while giggling.

"Why do I highly doubt that?" Luke asked somewhat annoyed by her attitude.

"If you desire to see proof that I am indeed the Bird of Paradise… even though Headmaster Ozpin has asked me to specifically avoid showing anyone… I will give you the privilege of seeing my wings." Victoria sighed with a smile, and then she groaned a bit as her immense golden wings burst from the back of her uniform sending feathers all over the hall.

"Now do you see, Luke? I am a savior. I only desire to bring happiness to this world, unlike my predecessors. I have healed so many injured and sick people, slain so many Grimm, purified so many sinners… all I ask in return is that you believe in me, and will help me make this world a better place for humans and Faunus alike." Victoria pleaded with a teary-eyed smile.

"Believe in you… what are you, some kind of religious megalomaniac? What you want out of people is their trust, not their belief. You should change your vernacular so you don't make people think you're trying to convert them to some cult. That could cause trouble fast." Luke sighed with his arms behind his head and Victoria gave a shocked reaction.

"D-Do I truly sound that way…? N-No one has said anything until now, so I always believed it was fine…" Victoria spoke in a panic.

"Chill out, you're acting like you've committed a crime and feel guilty or something. Just… you know, be more careful with how you word things. First impressions on people are everything." Luke laughed, and Victoria sighed relieved.

"Luke… if and when we face off in the tournament… I want you to use your Semblance." Victoria spoke, and Luke stopped laughing.

"Didn't you hear? It berserks every time." Luke spoke moping a bit.

"Trust in me, Luke… it won't be out of control berserking next time." Victoria smiled, and then walked up hugging him.

"Uh…" Luke spoke confused.

"Sorry. I have a habit of hugging my friends as often as possible." Victoria giggled.

"Well, my team is probably wondering where I am by now." Luke spoke backing up a bit.

"Oh that's right, the dance… I'll have to get changed and get there immediately. I promised my teammate that I'd dance with him." Victoria reasoned and then hurried off.

The night passed by with a lot of dancing and having fun. When morning came, the alarm in Team PRLS room went off in the form of a gong held by Ruby and rang by Yang startling them all awake.

"What?! What's happening?!" Luke asked in a panic standing up reaching for his blades.

"Calm down, calm down, we wanted you up and ready in time to have breakfast with us. Ren made pancakes." Yang laughed.

"Was the gong necessary?" Pyrrha asked smiling nervously.

"Nora's idea." Ruby told her.

"Worked didn't it?" Yang spoke.

The group got ready and headed over to the teacher dorms for breakfast. Team MDRB was also there, as Mero is Blake's daughter. The morning was indeed lively, as later that day both teams would have their first battles. Ruby explained to them the style would be one-on-one fights with members participating. In accordance with that ruleset, the victor of the match itself would be decided by the number of wins between the two. So if PRLS had 2 wins and MDRB had 2 wins, a tiebreaker would be held between two members to end it. If PRLS had 3 wins and MDRB had 1 win, PRLS would be declared the winner. Team PRLS will be facing Team BLCK, and Team MDRB will be facing Team SHDW. Both teams are ranked highly in the freshman year, but Luke and Mero were confident they could win. PRLS vs BLCK would take place at noon, and MDRB vs SHDW would take place at two.

Team PRLS decided to relax before their battle. The last thing they needed was to hurt themselves while training at the last minute and be unable to compete. When the time came, they headed to the arena. The student body was gathered and roaring, but very little of it was for PRLS, and Luke frowned a bit thinking he might be the cause. Either way, across the way was BLCK, who were staring right back at them.

"All right. It's time for the matchup roulette!" Ozpin announced pointing to the giant screen that began spinning two sets of portraits, and then they stopped.

"First fight – Rem Striker versus Lucy Alwhitz!" Ozpin announced and the two proceeded onto the ring and stopped approaching at roughly a quarter to the center of the ring.

"Let's see you take it…" Lucy grinned showing her ring with the crystal in it. Rem remained silent showing his crystal worn as a necklace on him.

"Begin!" Ozpin spoke and Lucy charged him with dual daggers making Rem dodge and evade.

Lucy's fast footwork had Rem on the defensive continuously dodging her attacks. She continued to laugh thrusting and slashing at him. Rem wasn't even trying to send an attack back at her. Pyrrha got a worried look until she looked at Luke. To her shock, he was laughing. What possible reason could he have for laughing in a situation like this?

All of a sudden Rem slid to the side narrowly evading a swing, and then he slammed his knee into Lucy's stomach shattering her Aura. Lucy couldn't even speak anymore as she stumbled forward to the edge of the ring. She wobbled trying to turn around looking at Rem who was staring over his shoulder at her.

"Never skip leg day." Rem one-lined, and Lucy fell backward out of the ring.

"Ring out! Winner by default, Rem Striker!" Ozpin announced, and Rem left the ring as medics brought Lucy back to her team's side.

"How did you do that…?" Pyrrha asked confused.

"I saw no reason to use my full strength against her until the moment she made a big enough opening to attack. At close range my gun is useless, so I used my secret weapon… my legs." Rem explained.

"Your legs?" Snow asked tilting her head.

"Never skip leg day and you'll be able to land devastating kicks like mine too." Rem smiled, and both Pyrrha and Snow got absolutely flabbergasted looks as Luke about doubled over laughing. They could tell… he knew. A moment after the medics were done tending to Lucy, the roulette began to spin again with two grayed out portraits signifying one round already went by. After a minute of spinning, it stopped.

"Second battle – Pyrrha Nikos versus Kyle Tohma." Ozpin announced, and the two got onto the ring, although Pyrrha's armor had a noticeable neck guard now.

"Wonder if that armor can stop my arrows…" Kyle pondered aiming an arrow with a grin on his face.

"Begin." Ozpin spoke, and Pyrrha's neck guard came apart and constructed the helmet of her armor as she charged.

Kyle moved fast firing arrows made of energy at Pyrrha, who expertly dodged them all. Pyrrha seemed to strike with furious precision whenever she got within range of Kyle. It continued to make Kyle panic a little whenever he triggered his Semblance allowing him to leap high into the air away putting distance between them. No matter how Pyrrha tried she could strike his crystal, which he was wearing on an anklet.

The fight continued on as Pyrrha kept chasing and striking. Eventually one of Kyle's arrows hit Pyrrha's helmet bouncing off. Pyrrha audibly growled and threw her weapon as a javelin piercing Kyle's shoulder carrying him through the air and into the upper levels of the arena seats.

"I'm NOT sorry…" Pyrrha growled clenching her fists as Lyle pulled her spear out crying in pain.

"Ring out. Winner by default, Pyrrha Nikos… barely. Try to keep a lid on that temper in future battles. Your goal is the crystal, not the opponent themselves." Ozpin warned, and Pyrrha sighed trying to calm down as her helmet disassembled reforming her neck guard.

"I'll be sure I do…" Pyrrha murmured walking out of the ring as the paramedics retrieved her weapon and returned it while tending to Lyle's shoulder injury.

"Pyrrha, what happened out there? You were like a totally different person." Snow asked with a concerned expression.

"Sorry… I… I saw his bow… and his remark… I… I remembered my death… and I… I snapped… just… couldn't hold it together…" Pyrrha sighed fighting back tears, and Rem sat down with her on the team bench to comfort her as the roulette began again.

The roulette span for a good few minutes as Ozpin held the button down long enough for PRLS to help Pyrrha recover her senses. Jaune even leapt down from the judges booth to help calm her down. At last Ozpin let the roulette stop.

"Team Captain against Team Captain – Luke Rose versus Bethany Tangerine." Ozpin announced, and Luke entered… but Bethany stopped at the edge.

"We forfeit." Bethany spoke looking at Ozpin.

"Forfeit? Why?" Ozpin asked.

"Catherine and I are the anchors of our team… at best, we provide covering fire or distractions to give openings for Kyle and Lucy." Bethany explained.

"Is this not an opportunity to improve yourself then?" Ozpin asked with a smile.

"I apologize… but I can't take part in this fight without embarrassing myself, and Luke for having to waste his time on me." Bethany reasoned bowing.

Luke walked across the ring to her. She looked at him and he gave her a head butt knocking her hat off also making her nose bleed a little. She started shedding tears as she held her nose and stared at him in shock.

"You're the team leader, right?! What's with that attitude?! Giving up without a fight is what embarrasses your team! You're backing out without even trying! We're only two-zero, so you still have a chance to tie it and cause a tiebreaker fight! Whether you lose that or not is irrelevant, because you tried! You fought and you gave your best effort! What are you going to do out in the real world?! Tell the Grimm you forfeit?! You'll be dead before you can even say a word!" Luke scolded furiously, and Bethany fell over in shock.

"He's being too harsh…" Ren spoke standing, but Blake sat him back down shaking her head.

"You, as captain, aren't just representing yourself, but your teammates too! You reflect the bond you have together, your experiences, your friendship, and most of all your conviction to work together to stop the Grimm! Why would I be wasting my time against a fellow team captain?! You act like something's at stake in this tournament! We're testing each other to help each other grow as fighters and as people! So before you so much as think about forfeiting again, you'd better have a damn good reason besides you're too scared or too weak!" Luke continued to scold, and Bethany began to bawl.

"He's going too far, we need to say something…" Ren commented, but they all shook their head at him making him more conflicted.

"Your friends fought with everything they had not because this is a tournament… not because they had to or they had something to prove… but because they believe that you're a captain worth fighting under the command of." Luke spoke extending his hand, and Bethany looked at him sniffling and hiccupping.

"I-Is that true…?" Bethany asked looking to her teammates, and all three of them nodded with smiles on their faces.

"So come on… stop whining and be the captain they know and respect. That guy wouldn't have taken a spear to the shoulder if he didn't know you were better than this." Luke spoke smiling, and Bethany took his hand letting him pull her to her feet.

"Headmaster… we're forfeiting, because I need time to become a captain worthy of my teammates respect." Bethany spoke smiling through her tears.

"That is a reason I can get behind." Ozpin spoke nodding as he smiled.

"I don't want to hear you whine a single time the next time we have to fight." Luke spoke smiling at her.

"I won't… or at least I'll try." Bethany nodded.

"Team BLCK forfeits the match. Team PRLS is the winner by default." Ozpin announced and a loud buzzer went off as confetti was released into the arena.

Later that day, after a rest period, PRLS met up with MDRB after their fight. The four of them looked exhausted, especially Mero. In fact, she looked the worst out of the four of them.

"I take it you guys had it rough…?" Luke joked.

"We went into Tiebreaker… Mero lost rock-paper-scissors so she had to go in. She only came out on top because her opponent tripped out of the ring when she went for her crystal." Riko sighed.

"I had to face the hand-to-hand fighter…" Biko groaned holding her back in pain.

"Why don't you look the least bit hurt…?" Diane asked agitatedly.

"Our opponents… were kinda easy, and then they forfeited. I guess they're ranked so high because of their looks." Snow shrugged.

"Eh, I'm sure they'll live up to their rank soon enough. Especially now that their captain's attitude got adjusted." Luke laughed.

The next three days allowed PRLS and MDRB to rest up. The fourth day was their second battle, and another four days later came the third battle. PRLS seemed to have a relatively easy time, whereas MDRB struggled through their fights. At last there were only three teams left in the Freshman Royale. Team PRLS, Team MDRB, and Team RBIN were the final three. MDRB and RBIN would face off to see who faces PRLS in a final bout. Mero complained up and down that PRLS and MDRB should face off first, but she unfortunately failed to influence Ozpin's decision.

Pyrrha spent a long time with Jaune during their breaks. She seemed happiest when she was around him. Luke also began noticing something about Pyrrha he hadn't before. Whenever they walked by the statues in hallways that had bows, she'd almost subconsciously move to the opposite side of the hall without changing speed. It was as if she'd developed a phobia of them. He eavesdropped on one of her meetings with Jaune and learned that part of their time was devoted to helping her try to get over the trauma of her own death. Pyrrha wouldn't admit it, but she really was sorry about stabbing Kyle with her spear and how she lost her temper immediately solely because he used a bow.

The pair would go near bow-wielding statues, almost as if trying to reverse-therapy the phobia by subjecting her to the object of her fear. For the most part it seemed to be working, although she was certainly still on edge around them. Luke was glad that Jaune was taking care of his teammate.

Luke didn't have much time to relax though. In just four days he'd find out which team would be facing them to go on as the freshmen champion team for the Final 4 Bout. Those battles would be significantly harder, as they're upperclassmen who have more experience. Luke's fear was facing the senior year team. Only time would be able to tell.

End Chapter 10


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